Index
Post 1 - Android Boot Process, Space Restrictions in /data, Usual Workaround scripts that load from init.d
Post 2 - The Permanent Solution for Internal space issues in /data, and how it is executed (Step by Step)
Post 3 - Credits, Benefits, Note on Cache, Note to ROM Makers on ClockWorkMod Updater Script, FAQ
Post 568 - Test ROM for Native Mount DataOnEXT with DalvikOnNAND
Post 622 - Test #2 ROM for Native Mount DataOnEXT with DalvikOnNAND
Thanks to quite a lot of inputs, ideas, testing and feedback, I have been able to give a working solution to reliably mount /data to the EXT partition in our HD2’s SD Card before Android initializes. I am redoing the first three posts of this thread to give a complete info that answers the what, why, how questions.
Before I even start, let me make my objectives clear:
Have a system partition that is as big as I want in NAND, so that I can install any bloated ROM I want without chopping down anything, and yet have a /data partition for all my apps and their bloated data
Avoid using internal (NAND) userdata partition completely, so that if the day comes where my /system is full of bad blocks, I will still be able to create a system partition in the ~900+ MB internal NAND my TMoUS HD2 has
With this method, this is how I am using my phone:
Device - TMoUS HD2
Boot Loader - cLK 1.5.0.9
Partitions (in order) and Sizes - Recovery - 10 MB, Boot - 10 MB, System - 500 MB, Userdata - <I didn't bother >, Misc - 1 MB, Cache - 2 MB.
Recovery - CWM Based Touch Recovery B8
SD Card - 16GB Transcend Class 6 with 4 GB EXT4 Partition (mounted as /data, of course!)
My idea for this setup is that a user should not be having to get into the boot loader or changing partition sizes for every ROM. With this setup, I am having a close-to-native-Android device setup and can flash any ROM I want, without worrying if my partitions will accommodate it.
So what exactly does this method do? Before I answer that, a brief on the Android booting process – Note that this is simplified to meet this thread’s requirement, and not necessarily completely accurate. When you power on the phone the following actions happen…
The Android Boot Process
Bootloader – In HD2’s case, Magldr or cLK – loads the kernel based on how you have configured the phone.
Kernel – The kernel (zImage) is loaded into RAM along with an initial ramdisk (initrd.gz), which initializes various devices (IO, memory, GPU, etc.), interrupts, and mounts the root file system (/). After this, the first user-space process called init is started.
Init – this is a binary file that is contained within the initrd.gz. The init binary processes init.rc and init..rc , along with other .rc files that are called by these two .rc files. Some of the key functions (from this thread’s perspective) in the order of their initialization/ execution are:
The init process follows the instructions in the init.rc and init.xyz.rc files and creates empty directories including /data. It then mounts the storage devices (partitions in the internal NAND (MTD)) to these empty directories. The NAND partition for system is mounted to /system, followed by the partitions specified for data, cache, etc. The directories for dalvik-cache (/data/dalvik-cache) are also created by the init process after mounting the specified device to /data.
The init process then starts various services including adb, service manager, Volume Daemon (vold) for media like SD Card (FAT partition). Most importantly, the zygote service which initiates the Dalivk-Cache is loaded in this sequence.
As we all know, Android is based on Linux. The boot sequence described above is common for all Linux machines – until the zygote stage. Core Android file like core, framework, services, IME, policy, etc. are executed from the Dalvik-Cache and hence Initialization of the Dalvik Cache is pretty much where Android comes into the picture
The sysinit/ run-parts part, which runs scripts from the /system/etc/init.d later the Zygote stage. No matter how this is done, Android has already started loading by the time the boot process comes to executing scripts in /system/etc/init.d
Now that you know what happens when Android boots, you may also have realized that mounting a device to /data happens early in the boot process.
Space Restriction in HD2, and the twist with bad blocks
The 'normal' way to store all OS data (dalvik-cache, Configurations & Settings, Accounts, etc.) and User data (Apps, app data, mails and messages, call logs, etc.) is to have a partition named userdata in the HD2’s NAND, and have it mounted to /data during the init process. The drawback in using the userdata partition is that the space you can have for userdata is inversely affected by the size of your system partition, and whether your phone is an EU/ International HD2 or a TMoUS HD2.
Best case is, if you have a ~100 MB system partition for a really scaled-down, space-optimized OS, you will get about 800+ MB for userdata partition on TMoUS and ~400 MB on an International/ EU HD2. This space might be good enough for a lot of us who only have light-to-medium use of our phones. But for quite a lot of us, this is a bottleneck. As if that is not enough, we have these villainous bad-blocks that creep up slowly, determined to swallow up the internal NAND completely, though it would be several years down the line before that happens
The Workaround
The workaround for this method is to have a script in the /system/etc/init.d that mounts the EXT partition in the SD Card to sd-ext, moves a part of /data from the userdata (NAND) to the EXT partition (sd-ext) and creates symlinks (symbolic link) in /data (userdata) to point to the new location in the EXT partition. In this method you will not see an increase in what the phone shows for internal space. The apps you install and then some more will be installed in the EXT partition, which will be symlinked as /data/app and so on.
The other way is to move the mount point (and the contents) for the /data directory from userdata (NAND) to the EXT partition in the SD Card, mount the userdata (NAND) as sd-ext or some other directory, create dalvik-cache (and maybe /data/data - where all user apps' data are stored) in the userdata and symlink that location back to the EXT partition (which is now /data). In this method, you will get the size of your EXT partition as the internal space. Moving parts of /data to NAND will in theory give you better performance, as the most read/ written part of the phone resides in NAND.
The benefit of these methods is that it is very simple and easy to install on any rooted ROM through the recovery. This method balances performance by moving the static part of /data (like the .apk you install) to the EXT partition, keeping the dynamic part (/data/data – where all app data are stored, or /data/dalvik-cache – from where all apks are executed) in NAND.
The drawbacks with this workaround:
This method is initiated AFTER Android boots. No matter how it is executed or what it does, anything that loads from /system/etc/init.d is executed only after at least some parts of Android loading process is initialized. This leads to weird outcomes – low sound issues, unpredictable behavior of the OS or some apps (Notification Widget toggles not working, etc.), and then some more. There is no reasonable way to predict what issues you may get. In fact you cannot be sure if the issue is with the ROM or if the issue is occurring because of the move2sd script you are using. If you are facing an issue that none others are facing and if you have a move2sd script, then you MUST undo what the script does before you can start troubleshooting.
In some cases, an in place upgrade (upgrading from one version of the same ROM to a higher/ newer version, or upgrading from one ROM to another ROM of the same Android version/ build) will corrupt the apps' data as well as configuration, etc.
Moreover, one move2sd script that works fine with one ROM will not work exactly the same way with another ROM or even an updated version of the same ROM.
There is always some amount hit or miss involved in this workaround!!!
The Solution
…is what this thread is all about. Like we saw, /data directory is mounted to a storage device pretty early in the boot process – so early that it is only Linux at the time /data gets mounted and Android is still yet to be loaded. The storage device that is traditionally mounted to /data directory is the internal NAND’s userdata partition.
The simple solution I have for unrestricted and reliable internal space is to directly mount the EXT partition of the SD Card to /data during the Linux init process (instead of first mounting the NAND’s userdata, loading Android, and moving the /data mount point or some contents within /data to the EXT partition while Android is loading).
How is this done?
The Easy way - Thanks to @Kokotas (Note that I have not updated Kokotas' .zip file to include the recent changes (20th October 2012) (See The Long Way below)
Visit the post (quoted below), thank @Kokotas, download the .zip from the post, flash it in recovery and lets us know how it goes. Did I tell you to make sure you have a NANDROID backup?
This .zip can be used to install DataOnEXT mod on the fly - your ROM will be the same when you reboot after flashing this .zip, except that /data will be mounted from the EXT partition with all your apps, settings, etc. intact.
kokotas said:
If you have a normal NAND installation(and an ext2/3/4 partition on your card) and want to give ph03n!x's DataOnEXT method a try,
BUT you think it is difficult THEN you can try the attached recovery package.
It follows all the steps of the described process AND at the end it copies all of your /data to the ext2/3/4 partition. <= This means that after rebooting, you'll have your system set up as before but with DataOnEXT!
And if you want to go back to your previous setup (that is a normal NAND installation without DataOnEXT), just flash the original kernel to your device.
Have in mind that I have only tested it on my phone. If you do try it, please leave a comment. Especially MAGLDR users! Cause it is not tested with MAGLDR.
Thank you ph03n!x for a great concept!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Long Way (or this is how I started off doing this mod )
The following steps show how to modify a ROM’s boot process to mount the EXT partition as /data.
IMPORTANT: THIS PROCESS INVOLVES USING DISXDA’s KITCHEN in CYGWIN. I EXPECT YOU TO BE ABLE TO SETUP CYGWIN AND USE DSIXDA KITCHEN. EVEN WHILE I AM TRYING TO GIVE A STEP-BY-STEP HERE, I WILL NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS ON HOW TO SETUP AND TROUBLESHOOT DSIXDA’s KITCHEN OR CYGWIN.
Assumption:
For the sake of simplicity, I am going to assume that you have a ROM that is installed in your phone, and you want to modify the same ROM for natively mounting EXT to /data.
I am also going to assume that your HD2 has a SD Card in it, and the SD Card has been partitioned in such a way that the first partition is the FAT partition that Windows sees, and the second partition is a EXT2/3/4 partition. You may or may not have a Swap partition, but I strongly recommend NOT enabling Swap.
Prerequisites:
Take a NANDROID backup using ClockWorkMod
Back up all user apps and system app data using Titanium Backup
Install Cygwin
Install @dsixda’s Kitchen
Install Notepad++ (or any other UNIX compatible text editor)
@dsixda’s Kitchen – Setting up a working folder
While these steps will involve the entire ROM, note that you will only using the boot directory or boot.img for this mod.
You need a rom.zip file that has at least these three directories when you open the .zip – META-INF, system, boot (or boot.img)
If your rom.zip file has a different structure, just extract the three directories alone from it and create a new zip. Essentially, when open the rom.zip you should see only these three directories
An Example:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Place this zip file in the original_update directory under Kitchen. A sample directory structure of the Kitchen is as follows:
From Command Prompt, run cygwin.bat, browse to the directory where you have installed the kitchen and run it using ./menu
Select option 1 for setting up a Working Folder, follow instructions. Congratulation! You should have a working folder now. After the Working Folder is setup, navigate to the WORKING_091712_123456 directory. Make sure you have a directory named boot, or a boot.img here. To be double sure, you can replace the boot directory or boot.img with the one from the ROM you want to modify and flash.
Steps for mounting EXT to /data
Back in the Kitchen Menu, select 0 for Advanced Options
Select 20 for Tools for boot image
Hit z for Extract kernel+ramdisk from NAND boot folder (or w for Extract kernel+ramdisk from boot.img)
Now navigate to the BOOT-EXTRACTED directory that got created under the directory where you installed the kitchen. You will see something similar to this:
Edit init.rc and init.htcleo.rc to find all mentions of sd-ext and comment them out with # in the begining. This step is to ensure there is no directory called sd-ext when your phone boots, avoiding any confusions
In init.rc, look for the on fs part. Under this part there will be a line that reads mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system noatime nodiratime. Below this will be another line that reads mount yaffs2 [email protected] /data nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime. Comment this line out with a # (#mount yaffs2 [email protected] /data nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime). Also, if you have mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system ro remount, comment that out too (make it #mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system ro remount)
Do all the following changes AFTER mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system noatime nodiratime, else the process will fail.
Code:
# Wait to ensure SD Card is available, and scanning file system of EXT
wait /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
wait /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
wait /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
wait /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
exec /system/xbin/busybox sh -c "/system/bin/e2fsck -f -p -t -t -v /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 > /system/fsck.log"
# Native Mount DataOnEXT
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data wait nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime barrier=0 data=writeback
Leave everything else in this section as is - you will have another line to mount cache, do not remove or modify it.
Next, scroll down to the section that reads on boot. Add the following like under it:
Code:
# SD Card Cache
write /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb 2048
Build the NAND boot folder (for Magldr yboot) or boot.img (for cLK / Magldr rboot) as per your requirements
Head back to the Working folder, copy the boot directory or the boot.img and include it in your original ROM’s zip file (not the one you created for the kitchen, in case you had to). Check the init.d directory of the ROM’s zip to ensure there is no script that mounts the EXT partition to sd-ext directory, or has a move2sd/ app2sd/ int2sd script – delete such scripts!. Also make sure that your ROM's inatallation does not copy anything to /data during Installation. If it does, move those parts to /system. Or use the instructions I had given under Note to ROM Makers on ClockWorkMod Updater Script to mount the EXT partition as /data in Recovery.
Format your phone’s /system, /data, / sd-ext and /boot from clockworkmod and flash this modified rom.zip
Let your phone boot into Android and settle down.
Configure your Google Account
Download and install Titanium Backup
In Titanium Backup, restore all apps and their data from the backup you had taken earlier
You phone must now have an internal storage that is roughly equal to the size of your SD Card
Note:
I have tested this method with CM7, CM9, CM10 (ParanoidAndroid JB) and Sense ROMs. There has also been feedback that this is working on other AOSP based ROMs like MIUI.
The mount wait command is available in the init binary from CM7 onwards (not sure if it is there in CM6). If you are not sure (or cannot check the source code for init.c)
Misc & Changelog
Credits
All the Devs who are contributing their valuable time to get Android working on our phones
Proz0r for implementing something very similar to what I had wanted. He has essentially implemented the same thing, I am implementing this in a slightly different way, that's all. (To be clear, I did not borrow the idea even though a few others have had the same brainwave that I thought I got first - I only borrowed the part where we have the phone wait until the sd-ext partition is ready for being mounted)
Rick_1995 for the first hint to get this modification to work
Securecrt for showing that this modification is indeed possible
Xylograph for pointing me to another thread where this modification is already done
marco.palumbi - for showing me that I need not have an elaborate script to ensure /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 is available, and a mount... wait option is available in the CM source for init. Also for doing away with the need for extprep script and including the e2fsck routine complete with a fsck.log in init.rc itself.
kokotas - For the recovery-flashable version of this mod that simplifies migrating to DataOnEXT
Some of the benefits of this mod are:
Space - Obvisiouly. The 1GB/ 2GB/ 4GB sd-ext partition will be mounted as internal memory, instead of the usual /data partition from NAND
Reliability - EXT4 partition is arguably more reliable than YAFFS2
Working around Bad Blocks - Most of our phones would be having a bunch of bad blocks by now (lucky you, Hynix NAND folks!). With this method, the /data partition is mounted directly to the EXT partition in your SD Card, and the internal userdata NAND partition is untouched. This means you can create bigger system partitions to work your way around bad blocks. Incidently all the bad blocks my phone has is in the userdata partition - this might be so because that is the area that is written to the most.
Performance - A fast SD Card gives better transfer speeds than NAND (My ParanoidAndroid build is noticeably faster after this modification, with my Class 6 Transcend SD Card with 4GB sd-ext partition)
Simplicity - Don't have to worry about hoards of the a2sd scripts and their variants, and carry-out trial and error as to which ones work reliably with your ROM of choice. /data is transparently and natively mounted to sd-ext, so no more low-sound or other odd issues
/data/data can be in the sd-ext partition, and ROM updates will not corrupt it like in some a2sd scripts
Hassle-free - Whether an EU HD2 or TMoUS HD2, you set a large size (445 MB?!!) for /system and forget about partitioning, as the internal userdata partition is not used at all and can be of whatever size. I am using 300 MB system in both my phones. This is close to native Android phones, where we do not keep changing the system partition size for every ROM that is installed.
A proper multi-user setup - if you had to share the phone with someone else, all you have to do is swap out the SD Card you usually have in the phone to a fresh one that has the required FAT and EXT partitions. The other user will see a fresh Android install and configure whatever they want. When you get the phone back, all you have to do is put your usual SD Card back in, and voila! you have all your stuff just the way it was (Thanks to @teemoo for the tip!)
Trying a new ROM? Make sure you do not botch up your data! Just remove the SD Card you usually use and place one for testing. You can always mod the initrd.gz of your new ROM, flash the boot image or place the initrd,gz in /boot and replace your usual SD Card when you want all your apps, data and settings!
A Note on Cache
As many may remember (and some have pointed out), I had the initial trial with 8 MB of cache for SD Card interface. Over a period of time, I tried various sizes from 512 KB to 16 MB and found out that the cache size is dependant on the phone AND the SD Card that is in it. This experiment involves:
Setting a cache size in the extprep script
Booting from the boot.img using fastboot boot command
Waiting for my phone to connect to Google servers
Opening Root Explorer and confirming the cache size
Running SD Tools, testing the SD Card Read/ Write speeds thrice in a row
Changing the cache size in extprep script, recreating a boot,img, and starting from fastboot boot...
And here are my test results:
As you can see, the higher the cache, higher the difference between the Minimum and Maximum values for Reads. While this test does not consider ALL aspects (like random reads), this gives a good idea of what is the cache size that is the best for my phone and my SD Card. Note that I have two HD2 with 2 different brand/ class of SD Cards, and bot gave pretty different results. You may have to find the right cache size for your phone! Once you got the right cache, even a Class 2 card (the stock Sandisk 16 GB Class 2 that comes with the TMoUS HD2) performa pretty well - no deal-breaking lags even in games like Temple Run or Ninjump.
Also, you should be worried more about read speeds - that is what the phone does most of the time. Write speeds comes into picture mostly when you are installing something. All writes that happen after that are mostly incremental, and never something a major as what happens when you install an app.
Note to ROM Makers on ClockWorkMod Updater Script
While one of the benefits of this mod is that you can set a huge /system partition and forget trimming down anything, some ROMs mounts /data during CWM install to copy certain apps or parts of /system to the /data partition. For such a setup to work well with this mod, the /data partition should be mounted to the EXT partition in the SD Card. I am not sure if there is a straightforward mount command that can be used in updater-script to mount an MMC partition. Thanks to Looki75's post, I have made the script simpler...
The code in updater-script...
Code:
package_extract_dir("work", "/tmp");
format("MTD", "system");
format("MTD", "boot");
mount("MTD", "system", "/system");
mount("ext4","/dev/block/mmcblk0p2","/data");
ui_print("Copying files to /system");
package_extract_dir("system", "/system");
...
...
ui_print("Copying files to /data");
package_extract_dir("data", "/data");
FAQ
I will try and compile some sensible Questions from this thread in the FAQ Section. I request all to read the first three posts at least before asking any questions.
Q: I have an EXT2/ EXT3 partition. You are mounting it as EXT4. What gives?
A: Mounting as EXT4 is backwards compatible with EXT2/3
Q: Where are the initrd.gz that you had posted earlier?
A: I have moved them to this post
Q: Will you modify the initrd.gz from the <name of ROM>?
A: I took more than 6 Hours on a Sunday Night to re-do the first three posts, and give a step-by-step guide. Do you still want me to modify the initrd.gz for you?!! I might post the initrd.gz of ROMs I use or try from time to time, but please don't post requests for modding <name of your ROM>'s initrd.gz. What is that saying about giving a man a fish vs. teaching how to fish...??!
Q: Is ClockWorkMod or 4EXT or TWRP compatible with this mod?
A: Before I answer, note that almost all Recovery tools available for HD2 will mount the SD Card's EXT partition to the sd-ext directory. After doing this mod, /data (in Android) = /sd-ext (in Recovery)
Any backup that includes the sd-ext partition will backup your /data.
At least CWM based recovery will delete dalvik-cache from NAND's data and /sd-ext. After this mod, /data/dalvik-cache (Android) = sd-ext/dalvik-cache (Recovery), so yes deleting Dalvik Cache works
CWN Recovery's Fix Permissions runs in both internal data and sd-ext, so yes that works too
Q: Will installing <name of script/ mod for ROM>, which involves flashing something in Recovery, work after this mod?
A: If whatever you are flashing is limited to modifications in /system, no problems - it will work.
If what you are flashing involves changing or adding content to any part of /data then it will probably not. The reason is when you mount data in Recovery, you will by default mount the internal NAND. After this method, the internal NAND is untouched. You must either modify the updater-script (See Note to ROM Makers on ClockWorkMod Updater Script), or use QtADB/ ADB shell to do what the flashing is supposed to do.
Q: I am getting stuck at boot animation/ getting "Encryption Unsuccessful" message when Android boots...
A: Your ROM's init binary may not support the mount... wait option that I am using. There are other variants like wait <device>, and then mount <device>, see if you can find what it is from the source code of your ROM's init binary (init.c). If all else fails, you may have to include a copy of busybox in sbin, point all commands in extprep script to that busybox, and increase the sleep time using /sbin/busybox sleep 25 (that is an example). In any case, you DO NOT HAVE TO WIPE DATA or WIPE ANYTHING AS SUGGESTED BY THE INSTRUCTIONS IN "Encryption Unsuccessful" message
Q: Can I move part of /data from EXT partition to NAND?
A: You don't have to move anything - that is the beauty of this mod. If, for example, you want dalvik-cache to be in NAND, all you have to do is create a directory, mount NAND to that directory, and symlink /data/dalvik-cache to that directory. Example: In init.rc, make sure /data/dalvik-cache is NOT getting created (comment that line out with a #)
Code:
mkdir /dalvik 0771 system system
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /dalvik nodev nosuid noatime nodiratime
symlink /dalvik /data/dalvik-cache
Q: How do I improve performance?
SD Card interface by design cannot handle multiple read/ write activities simultaneously. An example: Put the SD Card in a card reader attached to your computer. Copy a ~500MB file to it, see what write speeds your get (Win 7 shows an approx value). Now, while the first file is still being copied, copy another similar sized file - what happens to the write speed? It crawls, right?
When you have DataOnEXT, the SD Card is continuously being read from and written to because all your apps, their data, system data and configuration, etc. resides in the EXT partition. You SHOULD NOT expect the same speeds like a full-NAND setup. That said, there a few things you can do to improve performance:
Get a performance SD Card like SanDisk Ultra® microSDXC™UHS-I card
ODEX your ROM
See the previous question's answer for moving dalvik cache to NAND
Increase the NAND's read ahead cache from 4KB to 128 ot 256KB (in init.htcleo.rc)
Set your IO Scheduler to Deadline (use No frills CPU Control)
Q: My ROM slows to a crawl after installing this mod when I install or remove an app...
A: That is normal behavior, let it be for a min or two and it will get back to the usual speeds. This is because installing or removing an app involves creating the DEX file in the dalvik cache, extracting the components (lib files, config files, etc.) for the app and placing them in appropriate locations in /data and so on. This will slow down the system responsiveness because all of these are in the EXT partition, and the SD Card interface is a serial interface that will slow down with multiple simultaneous read/ write requests. However, doing what I have said for the previous question will improve performance quite a bit
FAQ is still WIP, I will keep adding to this section as and when...
ph03n!x said:
Devs - Would be great if you can help me with a way to reliably mount the ext partition to /data in init.rc!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is with the slow sd cards, Try something of this sort.
Code:
mount ....
while [ $? -ne 0]
do
echo "Waiting for slow sd card!"
sleep 5
mount ....
done
You might have to check a2sd script since I'm not sure what is the success test case for mount, most unix programs return zero so i've based it on that assumption.
Rick_1995 said:
The problem is with the slow sd cards, Try something of this sort.
Code:
mount ....
while [ $? -ne 0]
do
echo "Waiting for slow sd card!"
sleep 5
mount ....
done
You might have to check a2sd script since I'm not sure what is the success test case for mount, most unix programs return zero so i've based it on that assumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried a sleep command before the part where I mount the ext partition to /data, but that doesn't seem to work. I am still figuring out the script language used in Android's init.rc, including a if loop or a whole loop.
Looks like I have to create a service that calls an external script- at least that is how far I have come with my searching
Swyped from my HTC HD2 using xda premium
ph03n!x said:
Space - Obvisiouly. The 1GB/ 2GB/ 4GB sd-ext partition will be mounted as external memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think you mean internal here, I take it internal space is still used as cache (have an unanswered question in one of Xylo's threads as to why sdcard isn't mounted as cache).
Could you post just the init.rc file to see what modifications have been made?
In terms of loop, while trying to get a squashed system up and running (last squashed rom for HD2 was on gingerbread), the squashed files mounted fine (but couldn't get the system to fully boot, probably a libs issue), the mount command used in init.rc were:
Code:
mount squashfs [email protected]/system/fonts.sfs /system/fonts ro
placed after "on fs".
So modifying for this:
Code:
mount ext4 [email protected]/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data rw
, failing that you may need to mount it first as say /mnt/ext then loop.
The issue with the ext mount scripts that I've found (at least with link2sd) is that there is a delay in being granted superuser permissions, using init.rc should overcome that issue.
HypoTurtle said:
Think you mean internal here, I take it internal space is still used as cache (have an unanswered question in one of Xylo's threads as to why sdcard isn't mounted as cache).
Could you post just the init.rc file to see what modifications have been made?
In terms of loop, while trying to get a squashed system up and running (last squashed rom for HD2 was on gingerbread), the squashed files mounted fine (but couldn't get the system to fully boot, probably a libs issue), the mount command used in init.rc were:
Code:
mount squashfs [email protected]/system/fonts.sfs /system/fonts ro
placed after "on fs".
So modifying for this:
Code:
mount ext4 [email protected]/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data rw
, failing that you may need to mount it first as say /mnt/ext then loop.
The issue with the ext mount scripts that I've found (at least with link2sd) is that there is a delay in being granted superuser permissions, using init.rc should overcome that issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant internal indeed - corrected it
SD Card as Cache - Not sure if I checked back on the question, but I do remember the discussion. In most recent ROMs, /cache is a part of /data - this is to make space for large apps from the market that may otherwise be limited to the size of the cache partition. Instead of /data, we can have any other writable partition - SD Card or even SD-EXT - but symlinking it to /data seems hassle free and does not require anything more. Linking to SD Card may mean that the SD Card has to always be in the phone, and it should be mounted soon enough.
I haven't checked the loop part you have given - let me do some reading about it (or you can try it and let us know!). I will driving for the next several hours, will post the init.rc later today/ tomorrow...
HypoTurtle said:
Think you mean internal here, I take it internal space is still used as cache (have an unanswered question in one of Xylo's threads as to why sdcard isn't mounted as cache).
Could you post just the init.rc file to see what modifications have been made?
In terms of loop, while trying to get a squashed system up and running (last squashed rom for HD2 was on gingerbread), the squashed files mounted fine (but couldn't get the system to fully boot, probably a libs issue), the mount command used in init.rc were:
Code:
mount squashfs [email protected]/system/fonts.sfs /system/fonts ro
placed after "on fs".
So modifying for this:
Code:
mount ext4 [email protected]/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data rw
, failing that you may need to mount it first as say /mnt/ext then loop.
The issue with the ext mount scripts that I've found (at least with link2sd) is that there is a delay in being granted superuser permissions, using init.rc should overcome that issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ph03n!x said:
I meant internal indeed - corrected it
SD Card as Cache - Not sure if I checked back on the question, but I do remember the discussion. In most recent ROMs, /cache is a part of /data - this is to make space for large apps from the market that may otherwise be limited to the size of the cache partition. Instead of /data, we can have any other writable partition - SD Card or even SD-EXT - but symlinking it to /data seems hassle free and does not require anything more. Linking to SD Card may mean that the SD Card has to always be in the phone, and it should be mounted soon enough.
I haven't checked the loop part you have given - let me do some reading about it (or you can try it and let us know!). I will driving for the next several hours, will post the init.rc later today/ tomorrow...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright the mount loop command you mentioned and the looping I was discussing with Rick are different. The mount loop command mounts a file (eg: a .iso image) as a device.
The loop I was looking to create is a logical if... else or a while... do loop that will check if /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 is available, else will halt the boot process until it becomes available. The challenge (for me) its that the scripting language used in init.rc its not like the scripts we create for init.d
I am still doing some reading up...
Swyped from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium
Will this work??
Starting your own service at boot.
...If you have a reason to add something or just what to try things out however it is relatively straight forward to add a native service to that init sequence. I have created a simple example that writes the time elapsed since it started to the log. It wakes up every three seconds. The code for exampleservice.c looks like:
Code:
#define LOG_TAG "Example Service"
#include < utils/log.h >
#include < unistd.h >
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
LOGI("Service started");
int elapsed = 0;
while(1)
{
sleep(3);
elapsed += 3;
LOGI("Service elapsed time is %d", elapsed);
}
}
Place this somewhere in the platform build system and build as an executable. The build system will place the output in the /system/bin folder on the device. Now all that is needed is to add the following to the init.rc script:
Code:
service exampleservice /system/bin/exampleservice
user exampleservice
group exampleservice
oneshot
and your service will start on init. It is also possible to write your own file using the Android init language that enables your services and variables. Then just add a line to import the file in init.rc and you are done.
Source
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will this method work to pause the boot process until /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 becomes available? I do not have a dev environment setup - all I have is Cygwin that I use to edit boot.img, port some ROMs to test etc. Can someone help me create such a binary please? Again, I am good at logic and bad at writing/ compiling stuff
Alternatively, can cLK be made to wait until /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 is available? Thoughts?
What is the difference to this methods:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1716124
Are you sure we need more I/O performance with sequencial r/w? Isn't the task with multitasking sutuations to have more perfomance with random r/w? Sdcards won't give that much improvement then: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/microsdhc-memory-card-performance,3011-12.html
ReinerK said:
What is the difference to this methods:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1716124
Are you sure we need more I/O performance with sequencial r/w? Isn't the task with multitasking sutuations to have more perfomance with random r/w? Sdcards won't give that much improvement then: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/microsdhc-memory-card-performance,3011-12.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the CronMod as well as all A2SD methods, the Linux boot init process will mount /data to the internal NAND partition (userdata). During Android boot, /data or a part of /data is remounted or symlinked to the SD-EXT partition. This method has its own set of issues, both known and unpredictable. Read up the ROM threads with A2SD or similar stuff in HD2 Android NAND forum and HD2 Android General forum and you will know. This is a trial and error method which is a hit or a miss.
What I am trying to achieve is to have the Linux boot init process mount /data directly to the EXT partition in the SD Card, making this transparent to Android. As far as Android is concerned, it will see a /data partition like it sees a NAND /data partition when you do not use any of these scripts. With this method, there is no miss that I have experienced so far in my testing, except not being able to get the SD Card device ready in time for the Linux boot init process to mount it as /data. Once that is fixed, am sure many will see the benefits.
While the benchmark you have linked to gives a comparison of random and sequential transfer rates of Flash Memory from 9 months ago (it does not even have all that many decent class6 cards that are available now), have you find anything on the transfer rates of NAND? While I remember a HD2 user benchmarking NAND transfer rates, I do not remember the exact values but do remember it was not good. From my personal opinion, the same ROM felt faster with this modification - note that after the first boot all the apps (system or user) that you see and use will be loaded from dalvik-cache which is located in /data. All app data and databases are read/ written in the /data partition. Hence the responsiveness of the phone will be directly proportional on how fast the data partition is - in my case it is my class6 SD Card's EXT partition.
There is also the issue with bad block NAND making several flashaholics' phones unusable or unstable. EXT2/3/4 partitions have better data consistency management and also have e2fsck - it would not be without a reason that Google moved to EXT4 NAND format for their recent phones
Even if you have an International HD2 with 512 MB NAND, with this method you can use almost all of that space (except spaces reserved for bootloader, recovery, misc, etc.) for /system partition which will definitely make the phone live a lot longer even with bad blocks, what with recent cLK versions letting you manipulate partition layouts.
I can keep going on the benefits of having EXT partitions and the benefits of this method, but that would beat the purpose of this thread. Let's see if we can get EXT mounted during boot to /data reliably and consistently. Whether anyone wants to use that method is, of course, their choice
By the way, have anyone used the test ROMs? Any feedback?
I think yaffs file system is used by HTC only, other droid phones already using EXT file system on NAND.
Thats why some phones has good I/O benchmark
Even if it was possible to use EXT4 on HTC HD2 nand would be big improvment
ph03n!x said:
...This is a trial and error method which is a hit or a miss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. Sine even tytung Roms are bigger than 150MB I used 40a2sdx, and I noticed performance problems and sometimes low sound bug. Well I can live with this, but without of cource would be better
ph03n!x said:
While the benchmark you have linked to gives a comparison of random and sequential transfer rates of Flash Memory from 9 months ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry, I did not found any newer tests in english language. But I think 9 month old test are okay, cause most people use their µSDs several years (my 2009 SanDisk 16GB one just died ).
ph03n!x said:
There is also the issue with bad block NAND making several flashaholics' phones unusable or unstable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They should just stop doin' task29 whenever they only wanna flash a rom or change the partition layout.
ph03n!x said:
I can keep going on the benefits of having EXT partitions and the benefits of this method, but that would beat the purpose of this thread. Let's see if we can get EXT mounted during boot to /data reliably and consistently. Whether anyone wants to use that method is, of course, their choice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am pleased to hear that you wanna find a way that way. I just don't have an extra phone to test your rom atm.
Anyway, thaks a lot for your explanations!
ph03n!x said:
In the CronMod as well as all A2SD methods, the Linux boot init process will mount /data to the internal NAND partition (userdata). During Android boot, /data or a part of /data is remounted or symlinked to the SD-EXT partition. This method has its own set of issues, both known and unpredictable. Read up the ROM threads with A2SD or similar stuff in HD2 Android NAND forum and HD2 Android General forum and you will know. This is a trial and error method which is a hit or a miss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reason I believe it is hit or miss is because during boot init.d scripts in most of the roms runs in parallel. hence while scripts is trying to re-mount/re-link the data partition Android boot-up continues and causes problem. if we pause the android bootup while scripts finishes its job of setting up links correctly I think problem should go away. take a look at this
Code:
# Execute files in /system/etc/init.d before booting
# service sysinit /system/bin/logwrapper /system/xbin/busybox run-parts /system/etc/init.d
# class main
# disabled
# oneshot
if we change that to
Code:
exec /system/bin/sysinit
problem with A2SD scripts should be solved of-course you will have to modify any scripts which sits in infinite loop.
take a look at my latest JB AOSP roms or miui ICS roms.
-----Update----
what if we leave both the method in there
service method to run init.d scripts
and
exec method to pause the boot-up till sd-card is mounted and sd-ext is available.
lets says
make sysinit-1 which will execute the script from init.d1 directory which will have script to check the sd-ext availability
I am close to a solution - looks like a few other devices have already mounted EXT partitions in the SD Card to /system or /data. Here is the command:
Code:
devwait /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
mount ext2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data nodev nosuid noatime nodiratime
(Check this thread).
But the problem is it is still not mounting. Does this need anything in the kernel/ init? Even the batter-pull technique is not working! The phone is booting as if it is a fresh installation, though I do not see any mounted /data partition
The other option from the same thread is to have
Code:
pause (5);
in init.c and compile is at a binary.
Another bit of information I have come across:
Code:
on emmc-fs
# mount mmc partitions
wait /dev/block/mmcblk0p13
exec /system/bin/e2fsck -p /dev/block/mmcblk0p13
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p13 /data nosuid nodev barrier=1 noauto_da_alloc,noinit_itable,nodelalloc
(from here).
With this, the phone is going back to the Encryption Unsuccessful mode.
Pretty sleepy already, gonna call it a day for now - my poor phone has undergone a bunch of boots and reboots for a day
smokin901 said:
Reason I believe it is hit or miss is because during boot init.d scripts in most of the roms runs in parallel. hence while scripts is trying to re-mount/re-link the data partition Android boot-up continues and causes problem. if we pause the android bootup while scripts finishes its job of setting up links correctly I think problem should go away. take a look at this
Code:
# Execute files in /system/etc/init.d before booting
# service sysinit /system/bin/logwrapper /system/xbin/busybox run-parts /system/etc/init.d
# class main
# disabled
# oneshot
if we change that to
Code:
exec /system/bin/sysinit
problem with A2SD scripts should be solved of-course you will have to modify any scripts which sits in infinite loop.
take a look at my latest JB AOSP roms or miui ICS roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will check your ROM. I would still like to get /data to sd-ext working before Android boots though I thought I was close today, but unfortunately no!
Looks like there had been some progress to this cause, thanks to @securecrt! Check this post.
Swyped from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium
ph03n!x said:
Mounting - /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 is not getting mounted to /data at every boot/ reboot reliably. This results is the phone not booting at all (Gingerbread) or giving an Encryption Failed, wipe data prompt (This is a feature of ICS/ JB, if /data is not accessible, the OS will boot with a temporary /data file system to show this error).
I have not been able to find a way to reliably carry out this mount - my best guess is that the SD Card Reader interface is not getting ready in time to be mounted to /data. I do not know how to make the boot process wait until the device is available.
ClockWorkMod/ Other recoveries - As the recovery boot images are still mounting userdata to /data and the ext partition to sd-ext, you will have to access sd-ext to access your data. What this means is that if you are moving ROMs, a direct CWM backup restore won't work unless the new ROM also has this modification
Performance- is only as good or bad as your SD Card. My second HD2 has a class 2 SD Card, and I do not find any performance difference. While this is not bad, the SD Card I am talking about is a decent SanDisk card. If you have something with poor transfer rates, performance will suffer
SD Card cannot be removed from the system while Android is running!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is, obviously, not compatible with other setups, such as those using some type of ad2sd script (i.e. Amarulls), correct?
CWM Recovery backup should still work since it does backup sd-ext, no?
I need another sd card to play..
Ok, I need some help-
securecrt said:
the trick is:
1. rename the init to init.android
2. create a script named init, mount the system/data in this script, you can add a few sleep time in this to confirm the mount is alreay done and then execut init.android
3. disable the system/data mount in init.rc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ever since @securecrt posted this, I have been running in circles. Here is what I have done:
Renamed init to init.android
Commented out in init.rc:
Code:
#mkdir /data 0771 system system
Commented out in init.rc:
Code:
#mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime
Created a script named init with
Code:
#!/sbin/busybox sh
export PATH=/sbin
sleep 10
mkdir /dev
mkdir /dev/block
mknod /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 b 179 2
mkdir /data 0771 system system
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime
/init.android
Copied busybox binary to /sbin/busybox
Created the initrd.gz and flashed
The phone is booting to second boot (logo.rle loads), and then reboots.
Like I've said I have very limited Linux/ coding skills. Would be great if someone can nudge me in the right direction!
ny_limited said:
This is, obviously, not compatible with other setups, such as those using some type of ad2sd script (i.e. Amarulls), correct?
CWM Recovery backup should still work since it does backup sd-ext, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you need to remove all variants of a2sd/ link2sd scripts.
CWM Recovery will back up SD-EXT as /sd-ext, but Android will load it as /data after this mod. So if you are going to try this mod, you need to titanium backup all you system/ user app+data, install the modified mod or initrd.gz, make sure you have a ext partition, boot to Android and restore the backup from titanium. And the exact same if you are removing the mod (in which case it will be original initrd.gz).
I can sense that I am pretty close to getting this to work reliably, except for being a dunce in Linux/ Scripting. With little help this mod is a go for daily use
ph03n!x said:
Ok, I need some help-Ever since @securecrt posted this, I have been running in circles. Here is what I have done:
Renamed init to init.android
Commented out in init.rc:
Code:
#mkdir /data 0771 system system
Commented out in init.rc:
Code:
#mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime
Created a script named init with
Code:
#!/sbin/busybox sh
export PATH=/sbin
sleep 10
mkdir /dev
mkdir /dev/block
mknod /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 b 179 2
mkdir /data 0771 system system
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data nosuid nodev noatime nodiratime
/init.android
Copied busybox binary to /sbin/busybox
Created the initrd.gz and flashed
The phone is booting to second boot (logo.rle loads), and then reboots.
Like I've said I have very limited Linux/ coding skills. Would be great if someone can nudge me in the right direction!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sure securecrt will reveal his secret soon, m8.. I wouldn't 'waste' my time on it since he is already running it and knows how to do it
Maybe you can send him a PM if the wait is killing you ?
Related
I tried just about every tutorial to get My android apps on my SD, none work. Kaiser winmo i flashed to super incubus froyo Rsl13. I partition my SD card. when resetting the phone I hold center D to get to launch installer and put nand to sys and data to SD partition and also tried EXT2. Both did not work. Next i did terminal emulator on the phone did Su... pm installsetlocation 2... i checked it, it shows 2[external]. I wiped, tried it, did not work. Tried to install SDmove or those marketplace app movers. errors and cannot install. neither move to SD default program in android, for games or etc..
Is this cause of old kernel i flashed? It's pretty new i think, it adds the extra 11mb
UPDATE:
Here's my bootlog info
** /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
** Phase 1 - Read FAT (compare skipped)
Attempting to allocate 7564 KB for FAT
** Phase 2 - Check Cluster Chains
** Phase 3 - Checking Directories
** Phase 4 - Checking for Lost Files
Next free cluster in FSInfo block (46) not free
Fix? yes
311 files, 1291024 free (1371332 clusters)
sh: 0: unknown operand
mount: mounting /data/sysfiles/su on /system/bin/su failed: No such file or directory << This the problem?
I don't think apps2sd works if /data is on SD, I may be wrong of course, however have you tried sys and data on nand, with an EXT2 partition on SD? This is the 'standard' method on native android devices.
zenity said:
I don't think apps2sd works if /data is on SD, I may be wrong of course, however have you tried sys and data on nand, with an EXT2 partition on SD? This is the 'standard' method on native android devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried sys and data on nand and use androids froyo 2.2 default move to SD under settings and nothing. By apps2sd i mean't getting apps on SD sorry. I updated the post though. But now my computer SD reader won't work so i have to fix that then I will try sys and data on Nand with a EXT2 partition, i haven't tried that yet. thankyou for feedback i will get back to you on this.
'mount: mounting /data/sysfiles/su on /system/bin/su failed: No such file or directory' This error message appears on just about every android build I think, this one refers to the systems inability to find the file 'su' on either of these directories.
It does not seem to have any effect on anything, it's just an old and pretty much ignored error.
You could try out Kalt Kaffe,s relocate apps to sd script. It is very easy to setup and it only moves apk files from your system/app folder to SD.
Sent from my Full Android on Vogue using XDA App
Are you try it? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=750768
The relocate_apps.sh is a script that relocates all your apps into an EXT2 filesystem in /sdcard/andboot/apps.img.
Hello guys,
I have installed the above rom by Sandvold, rom is running well. I have intermediate technical skills but have been out of it for a bit. The rom is working well, no issues, but the rom thread mentions a lot about apps2sd, etc, and running scripts. My appps allocation is as follows, 99mb used and 49mb free. Should I be doing something to dalvik cache, running a script to allocate more space or ensuring everything is installed on the SD card. I am posting here becuase they dont like posts such as this in that thread. I would appreciate a small tutorial about this situation please i.e. what I shlould be doing after installing the rom so that i can get maximum space free on my phone.
many thanks in advance.
moghm said:
Hello guys,
I have installed the above rom by Sandvold, rom is running well. I have intermediate technical skills but have been out of it for a bit. The rom is working well, no issues, but the rom thread mentions a lot about apps2sd, etc, and running scripts. My appps allocation is as follows, 99mb used and 49mb free. Should I be doing something to dalvik cache, running a script to allocate more space or ensuring everything is installed on the SD card. I am posting here becuase they dont like posts such as this in that thread. I would appreciate a small tutorial about this situation please i.e. what I shlould be doing after installing the rom so that i can get maximum space free on my phone.
many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After flashing the ROM reboot into RECOVERY and flash amarullz script.
Goodwin_TJ said:
After flashing the ROM reboot into RECOVERY and flash amarullz script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And make sure your SD card has a FAT32-partiton with rest available space and an EXT4-partition with at least 512 MB, better 1 - 2 GB. If you configure(d) your SD card with GParted, check that both partitions are primary.
moghm said:
I would appreciate a small tutorial about this situation please i.e. what I shlould be doing after installing the rom so that i can get maximum space free on my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem as you do, and I found a script that made it work for me at least.
First off I wiped the whole phone clean, including the SD Card.
After that I formated the SD card like this (3965 MB card)
0 - 2909 fat32
2909 - 3933 ext4
3933 - 3965 linux-swap
How you do this is by going into the phone with ADB and do the following (Im using Windows7 so I used commandpromt):
Open commandprompt and type in "adb shell" (Assuming you have the requirments for this).
Once in you should se somethine like this "~ #" or "/ #". After this you type "parted /dev/block/mmcblk0"
This will give a prompt like this "<parted>", here you can type "print" and and see the exact size of your SDcard in MB and your current partitioning.
Decide how you want to partion your card (I used 1024 MB ext4 partion for my apps)
Remove your current partitions with "rm 1" where the 1 stand for the partition number. You should see thoose numbers when you type in "print"
When you removed all you can begin to create the new partitions by doing this:
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 2909
mkpartfs primary ext2 2909 3933 (You have to creat a ext2 partion first and then "upgrade it" to an ext4)
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 3933 3965
Type "print" again to make sure you have the correct sizes and all partitions you want, if you have then type "quit"
Now you have to "upgrade" the ext2 partition to an ext4. This you have to do in 2 steps.
First from ext2 to ext3. In the "/ #" promt type the following: "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" where the 2 is for partition number 2. After this you should have a ext3 partition instead of a ext2.
From ext3 to ext4 you do this:
"tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/block/mmcblk0p2"
"e2fsck -fpDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2"
Now when you have the partitions right you can move on to installing the ROM on the phone.
First you should download the old files that is in the bottom of this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10692249&postcount=1299
Extract the zip folder and send over the "A2SDKillerV5.zip" and "Data2SDInstallerV5_aosp.zip" to your SDcard.
From recovery install the ROM. When it is done, move back to the menu and do not reboot. Instead install the "A2SDKillerV5.zip" and when that is done reboot the phone and make sure it boots correctly. Take the "on first start" guide but do not login to your google-account. And do now download any apps or even go into market. After this reboot into recovery mode again.
When back in recovery mode, install the "Data2SDInstallerV5_aosp.zip". When its done you can reboot and you should have ~1GB to install apps on (Or whatever size you choosed)
Hope this will help you as much as it did to me
Kind regards Cykelstyre
CykelStyre said:
I had the same problem as you do, and I found a script that made it work for me at least.
First off I wiped the whole phone clean, including the SD Card.
After that I formated the SD card like this (3965 MB card)
0 - 2909 fat32
2909 - 3933 ext4
3933 - 3965 linux-swap
How you do this is by going into the phone with ADB and do the following (Im using Windows7 so I used commandpromt):
Open commandprompt and type in "adb shell" (Assuming you have the requirments for this).
Once in you should se somethine like this "~ #" or "/ #". After this you type "parted /dev/block/mmcblk0"
This will give a prompt like this "<parted>", here you can type "print" and and see the exact size of your SDcard in MB and your current partitioning.
Decide how you want to partion your card (I used 1024 MB ext4 partion for my apps)
Remove your current partitions with "rm 1" where the 1 stand for the partition number. You should see thoose numbers when you type in "print"
When you removed all you can begin to create the new partitions by doing this:
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 2909
mkpartfs primary ext2 2909 3933 (You have to creat a ext2 partion first and then "upgrade it" to an ext4)
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 3933 3965
Type "print" again to make sure you have the correct sizes and all partitions you want, if you have then type "quit"
Now you have to "upgrade" the ext2 partition to an ext4. This you have to do in 2 steps.
First from ext2 to ext3. In the "/ #" promt type the following: "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" where the 2 is for partition number 2. After this you should have a ext3 partition instead of a ext2.
From ext3 to ext4 you do this:
"tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/block/mmcblk0p2"
"e2fsck -fpDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2"
Now when you have the partitions right you can move on to installing the ROM on the phone.
First you should download the old files that is in the bottom of this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10692249&postcount=1299
Extract the zip folder and send over the "A2SDKillerV5.zip" and "Data2SDInstallerV5_aosp.zip" to your SDcard.
From recovery install the ROM. When it is done, move back to the menu and do not reboot. Instead install the "A2SDKillerV5.zip" and when that is done reboot the phone and make sure it boots correctly. Take the "on first start" guide but do not login to your google-account. And do now download any apps or even go into market. After this reboot into recovery mode again.
When back in recovery mode, install the "Data2SDInstallerV5_aosp.zip". When its done you can reboot and you should have ~1GB to install apps on (Or whatever size you choosed)
Hope this will help you as much as it did to me
Kind regards Cykelstyre
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much easier to install 4ext recovery.
I know I probably shouldn't be doing this but: When I was running a Gingerbread Rom the stock player found my music on my SD card. When moving to this rom, it refuses to find ANY music in the card. Downloaded some third party players like Poweramp etc and still it refuses to find my music. Don't know what to do now (Trivial I know but I really want to play around with the ICS rom but I do listen to music a lot so it's a hinderence that it doesn't work)
Zenamez said:
I know I probably shouldn't be doing this but: When I was running a Gingerbread Rom the stock player found my music on my SD card. When moving to this rom, it refuses to find ANY music in the card. Downloaded some third party players like Poweramp etc and still it refuses to find my music. Don't know what to do now (Trivial I know but I really want to play around with the ICS rom but I do listen to music a lot so it's a hinderence that it doesn't work)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that with the latest one, 3.4?
I had the same problem with 3.3, but its ok with 3.4. I have my music back.
When going from 3.3 to 3.4 I cleaned the folders on my sdcard. I dont know if that helped, maybe worth a try though. Heres what I did
Mount usb in recovery, deleting all folders except the ones I wanted to keep, ie music, pictures, titanium backup etc
Full wipe
Install rom
My music came back
I thought that ROM had A2SD built in and you just needed to run an adb command to enable it?
I've flashed this ROM & followed the instruction in running the script in the command prompt rebooted all's well here!
Tested Roms (will not test SD-SWAP on most)
These are some roms I've tried the enabler on, since I don't use a swap partition on my SD card I don't bother testing it and usually don't advise using SD-Swap. It's only in the enabler for sake of completeness. All sd-ext tests are done as ext4 unless otherwise specified.
Andromadus Slim Bean Build 6 (JB 4.2.2)
DataSwap - OK
SD-EXT - OK
SD-Swap - Untested
Andromadus Mimicry 1.3+ (CM9 ICS)
DataSwap - OK
SD-EXT - OK
SD-SWAP - Not Tested
Andromadus Test builds - Jelly Bean(CM10) - Build #61+
DataSwap - OK
SD-EXT - OK
SD-SWAP - Not Tested
Virtuous Infinity 1.31.0 Alpha3 (Full Sense 4.0)
DataSwap - ISSUES*
SD-EXT - OK
SD-SWAP - Not Tested
*The init script in /system/init.d/80dataswap didn't automatically execute upon boot. However when running it manually it worked fine. (might be fixed in 1.3, have not tested yet).
ILWT CM7 (Build 471) with ILWT CM7 Kernel
DataSwap - OK
SD-EXT (as ext4) - Not Working *
SD-EXT (as ext3) - OK
SD-SWAP - Not Tested
* When /sd-ext formated as ext4 was not working, I used 4EXT recovery to format it to ext3 under tools -> wipe/format => ext3, rebooted and it worked.
Gen.Y VisionX B4
DataSwap - FIXED*
SD-EXT - OK
SD-SWAP - Not Tested
*Fixed in 1.3 to include the busybox prefix, 1.4 to include shebang (#!) string.
UPDATED Aug 19th 2012
v1.4 Changes from 1.3
Added shebang (#!) string to dataswap scripts
Changed init script permissions from 750 to 755
v1.3 Changes from 1.2
Updated dataswap script to use busybox prefix for swapon/mkswap
Updated SD-Swap to use busybox prefix
v1.2 Changes from 1.1
Added addon.d support for supporting Roms
v1.1 Changes from 1.0
Fixed a bug where 96MB option installed 64MB
Added 128MB DataSwap Option
Added ability to enable SD-Swap (choose w/ Sd-Ext if SD-Ext partition exists, without w/o)
Changes from previous version (1.0):
Migrated to Aroma 2.50 Installer
Removed SD-Swap activation from SD-Ext Enabler Script
SD-Ext Init Script made smaller (Specific to HTC Vision/G2/Desire-Z now)
Now with the Aroma installer allowing for an easier selection of mods to be applied.
DataSwap Enabler
64MB DataSwap (Recommended for some Roms)
96MB Option (heavier multitasking)
Skip/Off (do nothing, skip to next mod)
Remove (removes the swap file and swap script)
SD-Ext Enabler
Enabled (detects and migrates /data/app and /data/app-private to /sd-ext)
Skip/Off (Do nothing, leaves as-is)
Revert (Moves all apps from sd-ext back to /data and removes script)
SD-Swap Enabler
Enabled w/ SD-Ext - does not enable Sd-EXT, simply enables SD-Swap correctly if SD-Ext partition also exists
Enabled w/o SD-Ext - enables SD-Swap when no SD-Ext partition exists on the SD card
Skip/Ignore - Does nothing/skips
Remove - Removes the SD-Swap enabling script
Do not enable SD-Swap if your Rom Already supports SD-Swap out of the box (elitemod, etc), so double check first.
If you don't have an SD-Ext partition, then Swap partition will be the 2nd partition on the SD Card, otherwise it's the 3rd. Thus why the installer makes the distinction for with and without SD-Ext when it comes to SD-Swap options.
Regarding addon.d support
In roms that support /system/addon.d, during an upgrade (flashing a new rom) shell scripts in /system/addon.d would be utilized by the backuptool allowing the ability to upgrade the rom without having to re-flash the extra roms.
For example in my /system/addon.d/ folder there will be a 60-kbeezie.sh script when flashing version 1.2. If you were to upgrade your rom (for example Mimicry 1.3.2 to 1.3.3), the dataswap, sd-ext, sd-swap init scripts will be backed up, and then restored after the new rom has been upgraded (the same way google apps is preserved in the 1.3.3 upgrade, so no need to re-flash google apps).
So on any roms that support addon.d, you'll be able to upgrade your rom to the next version without having to reflash the dataswap/sd-ext enabler.
What is DataSwap
Dramatically improves multitasking. (Can be used with or without SuperChargerV6).
In layman's terms it's a swapfile placed in the /data partition, where it should be faster than using a swap partition on the SD card. Unlike SDSwap repartitioning is not needed. Every reboot removes and re-adds the file so that the file isn't working on one specific part of the emmc chip all the time (one of the downsides to SD Swap).
More information can be found on the original DataSwap post by Nik3r
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27608489&postcount=153
What is SD-EXT
The /sd-ext mount is a partition on the SD card formatted as ext4 allowing you more app storage space. Unlike other means of running apps off an /sd-ext partition, this mod/script only maps /data/app and /data/app-private to the /sd-ext leaving caching and other features on the internal memory where it is most efficient.
Because SD-EXT in this case is replacing your /data/app and /data/app-private you want to ideally make it bigger than your /data partition (no less than 1.5GB, 2GB is a good fit). However bear in mind that if you wish to revert back to using only internal storage, you'll want to make sure that your /data partition has enough room for the applications to be moved back.
Why Both Together?
When all the user apps are placed on /sd-ext you are typically freed of roughly 600-700MB of storage on your /data partition. Doing so gives the swap file more room to move about the /data partition, but also splits the I/O (input/output traffic) between your SD card for apps, and internal memory for swap/cache, which may improve the overall experience (and may also prolong the life of your device... in theory).
Also You are not as likely to run the risk of /data suddenly running out of memory because a 64MB swap file is created on top of your app space. (i.e.: say you only have 70MB free in /data from all your apps, and you reboot to apply DataSwap but not SD-EXT, your /data would become dangerously close to being full when the swapfile is created). Hence DataSwap should be used in conjunction with SD-Ext.
Tips
If you currently use EliteMod ICS, you should be able to use this zip to revert a SD-Ext installation back to internal memory. Just make sure you re-partition the SD card after reverting so that EliteMod's init script doesn't automatically move the applications back to sd-ext upon the next reboot.
The effect of DataSwap will greatly depend on how your rom handles memory. For example on Mimicry with SuperChargerV6 option selected, the DataSwap will rarely be used, but it is handy for rapid burst of memory when apps need it. Without SuperChargerV6 the dataswap does get used a bit more often with more apps active in memory, but the extent of it varies on your rom's configuration.
If you're considering reverting SD-EXT apps back to the internal memory the following command will show you partition usage (can be run in either terminal emulator, or adb shell):
Code:
busybox df -hm
With an output similar to this:
Code:
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 183.6M 60.0K 183.5M 0% /dev
tmpfs 183.6M 0 183.6M 0% /mnt/asec
tmpfs 183.6M 0 183.6M 0% /mnt/obb
/dev/block/mmcblk0p25
549.2M 236.1M 313.1M 43% /system
/dev/block/mmcblk0p26
1.0G 239.8M 834.1M 22% /data
/dev/block/mmcblk0p27
295.3M 25.5M 269.7M 9% /cache
/dev/block/mmcblk0p28
20.6M 14.7M 5.9M 71% /devlog
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 2.0G 374.4M 1.6G 19% /sd-ext
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 2.0G 374.4M 1.6G 19% /data/app
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 2.0G 374.4M 1.6G 19% /data/app-private
Note how above /data has 834MB available, and /sd-ext is using 374MB, meaning /data will have enough room for the apps if you wish to revert.
DISCLAIMER
There is no guarantee this will work with all Roms, I've only tested it on a small handful of ICS roms (mimicry 1.3.1, EliteMod ICS). It is known to be skittish/non-working with most GB roms.
Do not ask if this would work on JellyBean, there's quite a bit of work that still needs to be done with JellyBean, and trying this on an alpha/preview JB rom will not likely work, plus I won't provide any support for someone complaining that it doesn't work on JellyBean as I'm not using JB right now.
Credits and Thanks
Thanks to Nik3r who originally wrote both scripts for his own EliteMod ICS Rom which provides both of these features natively to the rom (DataSwap is a seperate zip, but the rom itself already has SD-Ext/Swap support built in).
Thanks to blk_jack for providing support and information regarding the Aroma installer and assistance in testing swap on mimicry.
Checking if it worked
Typing free in either Terminal Emulator or adb shell, should show the approximate dataswap size on the swap line:
Code:
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 375916 372156 3760 0 4352
-/+ buffers: 367804 8112
Swap: 65532 17132 48400
For checking to see if SD-EXT is active, you can use the following command in terminal emulator or adb shell
Code:
adb shell busybox df -hm
Code:
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 183.6M 60.0K 183.5M 0% /dev
tmpfs 183.6M 0 183.6M 0% /mnt/asec
tmpfs 183.6M 0 183.6M 0% /mnt/obb
/dev/block/mmcblk0p25
549.2M 235.9M 313.3M 43% /system
/dev/block/mmcblk0p26
1.0G 287.8M 786.1M 27% /data
/dev/block/mmcblk0p27
295.3M 73.9M 221.3M 25% /cache
/dev/block/mmcblk0p28
20.6M 8.8M 11.8M 43% /devlog
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 2.0G 362.5M 1.6G 18% /sd-ext
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 2.0G 362.5M 1.6G 18% /data/app
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 2.0G 362.5M 1.6G 18% /data/app-private
/dev/block/vold/179:65
12.8G 7.8G 5.1G 61% /mnt/sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:65
12.8G 7.8G 5.1G 61% /mnt/secure/asec
You'll see that /sd-ext /data/app /data/app-private are identical in their capacity, usage and free space.
AGAIN there is no garantee it will work in every rom, if you do find success with it, post what rom and version you are using.
ALWAYS PERFORM A NANDROID BACKUP BEFORE APPLYING MODS JUST IN CASE
MD5 Checksum for kbeezie_dsext_enablerv1.4.zip: b0d00d89f265c57ba2aee0d7dc5ead24
you've moved really fast i can't keep up
great job.
any support for GB? did anyone try that on GB? or is it impossible?
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Riro Zizo said:
you've moved really fast i can't keep up
great job.
any support for GB? did anyone try that on GB? or is it impossible?
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I supposed its possible both features are just init.d scripts. But I don't know enough about the shell scripting differences between GB and ICS to know whether or not there will be conflicts. In theory you could take the sdparts init from elitmod cm7 and replace it in the zip (or I can when I get home)
The data swap one is very simple and may work without a problem, I'm more concerned about the sdext part.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2
kbeezie said:
I supposed its possible both features are just init.d scripts. But I don't know enough about the shell scripting differences between GB and ICS to know whether or not there will be conflicts. In theory you could take the sdparts init from elitmod cm7 and replace it in the zip (or I can when I get home)
The data swap one is very simple and may work without a problem, I'm more concerned about the sdext part.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's currently 2:07am here so you'll do it when you get home
at first try the data swap (since you have high hopes, and since i'm more interested in it), then try the sdext...
data swap can be used without sdext, but as you mentioned, using both allows the data swap file to have more physical space to move around on every reboot...
but if everything woked out, i'll be using the data swap without sdext... cuz i really don't have sd space (i dunno why)
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Riro Zizo said:
it's currently 2:07am here so you'll do it when you get home
at first try the data swap (since you have high hopes, and since i'm more interested in it), then try the sdext...
data swap can be used without sdext, but as you mentioned, using both allows the data swap file to have more physical space to move around on every reboot...
but if everything woked out, i'll be using the data swap without sdext... cuz i really don't have sd space (i dunno why)
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I mean if you flash the zip and don't have an sd-ext partition, nothing should happen, since it'll only activate if it see's an sd-ext partition.
And to see what I mean about the dataswap init script, this is all it is:
Code:
# Enables swap on data partition
# file is /data/local/swap
# POI: this can be used along with sdcard swap partition
# the load will be automatically evenly divided between the two locations
mv /data/local/swap /data/local/swap.old
busybox dd if=/dev/zero of=/data/local/swap bs=1M count=64
chmod 0600 /data/local/swap
mkswap /data/local/swap
swapon /data/local/swap
rm -f /data/local/swap.old
All it does is move the swap file to old (which course only does it if it exists), create a file of 64MB, make it a swap file, and turn it on. Rinse and repeat every time you boot up the phone.
I doubt those commands changed much from GB to ICS. The 04sdcardparts file on the other hand is around 240 lines. I'll unpack the one from EliteMod CM7 and run a diff on them to see if they're any different (if not, its because he simply migrated his latest work from ICS that he's currently on, to CM7 to fix the bug, which I think you were the one to report initially).
But yea as long as you understand the caveats of using DataSwap without an sd-ext I don't think it would be a major problem (just probably wouldn't perform as well in my opinion since you're accessing the same device for both swap and standard apps).
kbeezie said:
Yea I mean if you flash the zip and don't have an sd-ext partition, nothing should happen, since it'll only activate if it see's an sd-ext partition.
And to see what I mean about the dataswap init script, this is all it is:
Code:
# Enables swap on data partition
# file is /data/local/swap
# POI: this can be used along with sdcard swap partition
# the load will be automatically evenly divided between the two locations
mv /data/local/swap /data/local/swap.old
busybox dd if=/dev/zero of=/data/local/swap bs=1M count=64
chmod 0600 /data/local/swap
mkswap /data/local/swap
swapon /data/local/swap
rm -f /data/local/swap.old
All it does is move the swap file to old (which course only does it if it exists), create a file of 64MB, make it a swap file, and turn it on. Rinse and repeat every time you boot up the phone.
I doubt those commands changed much from GB to ICS. The 04sdcardparts file on the other hand is around 240 lines. I'll unpack the one from EliteMod CM7 and run a diff on them to see if they're any different (if not, its because he simply migrated his latest work from ICS that he's currently on, to CM7 to fix the bug, which I think you were the one to report initially).
But yea as long as you understand the caveats of using DataSwap without an sd-ext I don't think it would be a major problem (just probably wouldn't perform as well in my opinion since you're accessing the same device for both swap and standard apps).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i have sdswap that is on too so this might increase multitasking and swap speed a little more...
the data swap commands, is this it? all of it? cuz i can just copy past them into a .sh file and execute the script at boot... is it legit if i do that?
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Riro Zizo said:
well, i have sdswap that is on too so this might increase multitasking and swap speed a little more...
the data swap commands, is this it? all of it? cuz i can just copy past them into a .sh file and execute the script at boot... is it legit if i do that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea that's all of it, the zip basically installs it by doing:
Code:
...
package_extract_file("system/etc/init.d/80dataswap", "/system/etc/init.d/80dataswap");
package_extract_file("system/etc/init.d/04sdcardparts", "/system/etc/init.d/04sdcardparts");
ui_print("Modifying permissions...");
set_perm(0, 0, 0775, "/system/etc/init.d/80dataswap");
set_perm(0, 0, 0775, "/system/etc/init.d/04sdcardparts");
unmount("/system");
...
So technically if you want to do it manually all you have to do is save that as 80dataswap in /system/etc/init.d and make sure to set chmod 0775 on it, and reboot.
I just took a look at the one on EliteMod CM7, it's different and a heck of a lot smaller. It's a file called 10apps2sd and only 39 lines. I'm almost wondering though if other aspects of the /sd-ext partition are in other init scripts (i.e.: initialized variables and such set before reaching that level of the init).
Also the EliteMod CM7 thread doesn't seem to make any mentions of DataSwap, was probably only created for his ICS rom (though the script seems like it'd work on just about any rom supporting those commands and had enough free space to work with).
In fact because nothing has changed dataswap wise from his own dataswap zip you could just grab it from his thread whichever size you want and flash it. It'd be identical to this bundled one without the sd-ext.
well init.d commands are supported for all Vision ROMs, and i'm sure they are supported on CM builds. so now the problem only lies on auto-sdext for GB.
EDIT: ok, before i reboot:
i have a 128MB sd swap already active... how do i know that the 64MB data swap is active too?
you knew that by noticing the 64MB in "free"command ... but i already have a 128MB swap in "free" command
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Riro Zizo said:
well init.d commands are supported for all Vision ROMs, and i'm sure they are supported on CM builds. so now the problem only lies on auto-sdext for GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got a suggestion for a good GB-based rom you were thinking of?
kbeezie said:
Got a suggestion for a good GB-based rom you were thinking of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, tsubus in his ILWT thread was talking about it 2 days ago... if it works, i might switch back to his ROM
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Riro Zizo said:
lol, tsubus in his ILWT thread was talking about it 2 days ago... if it works, i might switch back to his ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well later tonight (i.e.: after the hours someone might likely call/text), I'll give ILWT a try. Will install it clean, install some apps, then apply the mod, then install some more apps so that I know 1) already installed apps get moved, and 2) it continues to work even if you reboot.
kbeezie said:
Well later tonight (i.e.: after the hours someone might likely call/text), I'll give ILWT a try. Will install it clean, install some apps, then apply the mod, then install some more apps so that I know 1) already installed apps get moved, and 2) it continues to work even if you reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've configured the dataswap script... i'll reboot and report now
EDIT: ready for the big news? IT WORKS!
before the reboot, i had about 128MB sdswap on, and 166MB free in the /data partition.
afterr reboot, i now have 197MB swap (which is 128MB + 64MB... + the extra numbers ) and 95MB free in /data...
now with the deletion of some bloat apps (i have about 210 apps) i might get over 100MB free in /data, that way the file could have some space to physically move...
i'll throw my 5 thanks of the day to you now
EDIT: whoa! now with that much extra RAM, i think i should bump up my VM heap size.
EDIT: something weirrd just happened:
while i uninstalled 2 apps (100 floors and its official cheats) i went to check /data's free memory and it showed me 163MB, that's only 3MB "eaten" by the dataswap. so i went to terminal and saw that the total is still 197MB... is it because the file has a "dynamic" size? (meaning it gets larger when it needs to) or is it a constant size... and if it has a constant (64MB) size, what just happened with my /data partition?
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
The dataswap file would be a prefixed size, i.e.: if it was created as 64MB it stays as 64MB, what it consumes internally may vary, but its always eating least 64MB of the /data partition.
You could always run something like du -hs /data/*
to see what is using what space.
In other news the swap seems to be maxing out on mimicry (but I wonder if it's because a 1.3GB app is being installed from the play store and is using all the ram and then some), on elitemod it normally wouldn't get higher than 40mb or so.
ok, i confirmed this, no need to test it yourself... it practically works on ILWT as there is not much difference between EMCM7 and ILWTCM7...so you might wanna change OP and put that data swap works on GB... although never tested on sense or MIUI.
i can see it's using it a little bit... i mean i opened root explorer, play store, settings, then tapatalk. and when going back to root explorer it restarted... it didn't keep root explorer cached... is there a way to increase swap caching? i mean if i were android i would start caching in swap until i at least use 75% of it
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Riro Zizo said:
ok, i confirmed this, no need to test it yourself... it practically works on ILWT as there is not much difference between EMCM7 and ILWTCM7...so you might wanna change OP and put that data swap works on GB... although never tested on sense or MIUI.
i can see it's using it a little bit... i mean i opened root explorer, play store, settings, then tapatalk. and when going back to root explorer it restarted... it didn't keep root explorer cached... is there a way to increase swap caching? i mean if i were android i would start caching in swap until i at least use 75% of it
———————————————————
i didn't mean to mock you or to offend you in any kind of way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's going to vary by the app, the swap is only used when memory is being run out of which is the way you want it to work. Swap shouldn't be used as caching per-se, just mainly as a ceiling for when ram is being used up.
I noticed that when using SuperChargerV6 the swap usage is almost nil, but course SuperCharger may prevent apps from multitasking as much.
I think it's a good idea to use the init.d scripts from the CM9 compatible kernel if you didn't. It basically just removes the support for async init.d ordering but should work everywhere even on AOKP. I had to make sure the scripts run in an order for the ROM installation but alone they don't need the syncing code and it reportedly freezes on CM9.
(EDIT, nevermind, it doesn't really matter since this script is the first of the sequence. Still the extra lines are unnecessary)
Also an "OFF" package may be a good idea
The swap usage is due to the tweaks in elitemod_kernel.sh, when the swap gets full it will slow the phone down to a crawl. That's why supercharger causes problems with swap, it overrides something in there.
nik3r said:
Also an "OFF" package may be a good idea
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd imagine off for dataswap would simply be your original OFF mod zip, since int wouldn't do anything differently. What would be interesting would be an "off" for sd-ext, which I guess would just be a edify script to move /sd-ext/app and /sd-ext/app-private back to /data and then the removal of the init script.
But yea not all roms are designed to be used with swap storage, those that don't normally have a means of using swap on their own may behave differently when that's introduced into the mix, where as your rom actually has been tweaked with the possibility of using swap in mind.
I still get the best battery life and smoothest swap transfer with EliteMod though. (on mimify for example ,the CPU steps are not as frequent, and is a minimum of 245mhz, with no vdd_levels exposed for undervolting).
Well I wonder if it can be done entirely in recovery. I suppose it's as simple as mounting /data and /sd-ext and copying the data, then wiping /sd-ext. All in one neat flashable package. I guess 4EXT is pretty smart about mount points so it may be as simple as
Code:
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/sd-ext");
and maybe not
nik3r said:
Well I wonder if it can be done entirely in recovery. I suppose it's as simple as mounting /data and /sd-ext and copying the data, then wiping /sd-ext. All in one neat flashable package. I guess 4EXT is pretty smart about mount points so it may be as simple as
Code:
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/sd-ext");
and maybe not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think so too, but course I'd be more concerned about checking to see if /data will be able to contain the apps stored in /sd-ext if someone went past the 1GB size. But ya I was thinking bout it being done completely in recovery, and just removing the init script from /system after the move and wipe has been done to sd-ext.
Could probably even run_program () a small shell script copied to /tmp.
Well even if it was impossible to check free space and filesizes directly from recovery you can still invoke shell scripts and use busybox. Something like
Code:
run_program("/sbin/su", "/tmp/script.sh");
Even do the move from there. And then share the flashable zip
I admit you are most likely better at shell than I am, I don't use desktop linux outside VM.
I have a problem with my phone.
I believe that the internal partitions are messed up.
I have tried a couple of guides to fix this but no luck. I get "error formatting /data!" on recovery. I also tried using the formatting tools from adb shell (e2fsck, gparted).
The main problem is that when i restart my phone the /data partition gets wiped, and the phone reboots in blank, no apps no setting (some of them remain).
I wonder if i can solve this by setting my sd-card to be the new /data. I doesn't matter if i have to leave the sd-card on all the time. i mainly use this phone for developing apps.
Thanks.:good:
Felivel said:
I have a problem with my phone.
I believe that the internal partitions are messed up.
I have tried a couple of guides to fix this but no luck. I get "error formatting /data!" on recovery. I also tried using the formatting tools from adb shell (e2fsck, gparted).
The main problem is that when i restart my phone the /data partition gets wiped, and the phone reboots in blank, no apps no setting (some of them remain).
I wonder if i can solve this by setting my sd-card to be the new /data. I doesn't matter if i have to leave the sd-card on all the time. i mainly use this phone for developing apps.
Thanks.:good:
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It could probably be done if you could get the sdcard to mount at boot, not sure if thats possible. You would need to create a flashable much like the ext4 mod, that edits the init.inc.rc file to mount the sdcard and /data to it. You would want to partition your sdcard with an ext3 or ext4 partition and use that for data.
Yes it can be done. That's how boot manager works, by modifying the ramdisk to load images from sdcard or emmc instead of the partition. I think I have an idea on how to make your request work.
Edit: If you feel like trying a project, what needs to be done is create a file data.img and mount it as loopback using busybox (ROM needs a working busybox).
Then the boot.img needs to be updated replacing the mount /data entry in init.inc.rc with the location of the loopback device and a loopback setup prior to this. The data.img created needs to be formatted ext3 or ext4. I know it's not too detailed but rather just a summary.
Update: I've since made a flashable zip that automatically creates a modified sdcard1 binary and extracts an init.d script to handle it all. Will make a thread in a more general location as this could be used on many TouchWiz devices. Link.
Hello everyone,
The mailman brought me a new 64GB microSD card this morning, and I wanted to try formatting it in ext4 instead of exFAT. Both for the heck of it and in case I wanted to give AOSP ROMs a try down the road.
The usual caveats apply.
Required:
init.d support
a mounting script
a mounting updater-script for custom recoveries.
You can get init.d support with the stock kernel on many devices by having the run-parts command launch from a custom install-recovery.sh script. See the following thread for files and a how-to:
[MOD]Term-init & Zip-init: Enable Init.d for Any Phones w/o Need of Custom Kernels!!!
SD card removal:
Should you need to remove the card it can be unmounted and safely removed from the storage settings as usual. Mounting it again requires either a reboot or manually executing the mount command and then activating the card in the storage settings.
Mounting script:
Make sure you have proper line endings, file name (e.g. 95mountsdext4) and permissions set.
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
# Mount SD Card Ext4 Script
mount -rw -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /storage/extSdCard
Mounting in CWM/TWRP:
The other piece in this is the attached zip file, which simply runs the appropriate mount command for Clockworkmod Recovery. Unmount as usual. This way you can also store nandroid backups and other update zips on the external as well.
Technical considerations:
The mounting occurs early enough during the boot process that the media scanner and MTP services have no issues with this.
There may be are some permissions related glitches to look out for, but it hasn't been an issue for me so far. (One possible fix would be a recursive chmod/chown added to the mounting script.)
Update: The camera app saves the photos properly to the SD card, but leaves them with improper permissions which prevent subsequent viewing or editing again until you chmod the files. To be continued...
If your init.d support comes from the install-recovery.sh trick, CWM will prompt to delete the script before reboot. Don't.
If the mounting script doesn't run for some reason, or you try to activate the card before having mounted it manually, the phone will give an error and ask if you want to format the card. Don't.
Enjoy,
Darkshado
I have been looking for a way to do this for a long time for numerous reasons (symlinks, >4GB file size, linux-only environment, etc.). I'll be giving this a try very soon.
Thanks for sharing!
EDIT: Just wanted to add that I think it's ridiculous Android doesn't support this natively.
The permissions issues are frustrating. I can take photos and store them on the card, but the umask for JB has been set as 077, in other words, rwx------ permissions, and ownership by the application's user.
I tried different arguments for the mount command to try and force permissions and ownership one way or another with no luck so far. Ironically, an NTFS formatted card might work better in this respect.
A similar mod had been made on the Nexus S and one of the posters resorted to an apk that regularly ran chmod -R 0777 on new files, I tried using it but it just hung there and did nothing on the Note II.
Another possibility would be using FUSE, although I'm not sure how to go about doing this yet.
Also, I pondered the possibility of using UDF instead of ext4, it is a standardized format and just about every major OS out there supports it too...
Any updates? Is it working already or...?
Despite all the good of Android, Google/carriers, whoever, not including ext2/3/4 support natively is just a slap in the face. Good to see someone working to right a wrong that subjugating software has done.
You should NOT be doing this. The Android hardware requirements clearly state that all shared storage directories must be case insensitive and must not have permissions. FAT32 is the only supported filesystem which meets these requirements. Mounting an EXT filesystem directly will break applications.
The newer versions of Android come with an "sdcard" utility which uses a FUSE driver to wrap a native EXT filesystem and exposes a pseudo filesystem which is case insensitive and is without permissions. You should mount the EXT SD card at a different location (/dev/fuse) and use the "sdcard" utility to emulate it at /storage/whatever. You can see the command line syntax of the "sdcard" utility in the source code.
CM10.1 does this automatically. https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_system_core/tree/cm-10.1/sdcard
KurianOfBorg said:
You should NOT be doing this. The Android hardware requirements clearly state that all shared storage directories must be case insensitive and must not have permissions. FAT32 is the only supported filesystem which meets these requirements. Mounting an EXT filesystem directly will break applications.
The newer versions of Android come with an "sdcard" utility which uses a FUSE driver to wrap a native EXT filesystem and exposes a pseudo filesystem which is case insensitive and is without permissions. You should mount the EXT SD card at a different location (/dev/fuse) and use the "sdcard" utility to emulate it at /storage/whatever. You can see the command line syntax of the "sdcard" utility in the source code.
CM10.1 does this automatically. https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_system_core/tree/cm-10.1/sdcard
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Again, Android not natively supporting ext4 is a slap in the face. Usability over technical merit disgusts me.
muqali said:
Again, Android not natively supporting ext4 is a slap in the face. Usability over technical merit disgusts me.
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It does support EXT4! Officially. All Google ROMs and AOSP can mount EXT4 partitions as /storage/*. The correct way to mount it is to use the command "sdcard" not "mount". I'm pretty sure any AOSP ROM will automatically mount an EXT4 SD card using the "sdcard" command just like Cyanogenmod does.
Thanks for the info. I'll look into this soon-ish, once my exams are over.
Sent from my SGH-T889V using xda app-developers app
KurianOfBorg said:
It does support EXT4! Officially. All Google ROMs and AOSP can mount EXT4 partitions as /storage/*. The correct way to mount it is to use the command "sdcard" not "mount". I'm pretty sure any AOSP ROM will automatically mount an EXT4 SD card using the "sdcard" command just like Cyanogenmod does.
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It's still a second class citizen to a xFATx filesystem.
muqali said:
It's still a second class citizen to a xFATx filesystem.
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No it's fully supported by AOSP exactly the same as FAT on AOSP and exFAT/NTFS on Samsung ROMs. It's the manufacturer's fault for REMOVING support from their ROM. When you insert an EXT SD card on AOSP, it gets mounted at /storage/* just like any other SD card.
In my N7100 with CM 10.1, ext4 has stopped working for my 32gb SDCard on 05-01-2013 nightly, even after reformatting, going back to stock, then reinstalling CM 10.1. I also noticed that my ext4 formatted 8GB SdCard still works, however, so I am not sure if it's a storage size issue in my case (32gb vs 8gb). I am trying a hybrid of 8mb fat32 / 28.*gb ext4 to see if that will work.
KurianOfBorg said:
No it's fully supported by AOSP exactly the same as FAT on AOSP and exFAT/NTFS on Samsung ROMs. It's the manufacturer's fault for REMOVING support from their ROM. When you insert an EXT SD card on AOSP, it gets mounted at /storage/* just like any other SD card.
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clearday said:
In my N7100 with CM 10.1, ext4 has stopped working for my 32gb SDCard on 05-01-2013 nightly, even after reformatting, going back to stock, then reinstalling CM 10.1. I also noticed that my ext4 formatted 8GB SdCard still works, however, so I am not sure if it's a storage size issue in my case (32gb vs 8gb). I am trying a hybrid of 8mb fat32 / 28.*gb ext4 to see if that will work.
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Is it formatted properly as ext4? Using mke2fs or (tune2fs to convert to ext4). All ROMs only mount the first partition on the SD card regardless of the file system. Sometime after mounting USB Mass Storage an the SD card doesn't remount properly so you need to reboot the device. You'll most probably want to use MTP with ext4 anyway.
KurianOfBorg said:
Is it formatted properly as ext4? Using mke2fs or (tune2fs to convert to ext4). All ROMs only mount the first partition on the SD card regardless of the file system. Sometime after mounting USB Mass Storage an the SD card doesn't remount properly so you need to reboot the device. You'll most probably want to use MTP with ext4 anyway.
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Finally fixed the problem by running this command in ROM Toolbox Lite:
"find /storage/sdcard1/ -print0 | xargs -0 chown root:media_rw"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38182488#post38182488
clearday said:
Finally fixed the problem by running this command in ROM Toolbox Lite:
"find /storage/sdcard1/ -print0 | xargs -0 chown root:media_rw"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38182488#post38182488
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Then it's not mounted properly! Your ext4 SD card has directly been mounted at /storage/* instead of through the FUSE driver. You should NOT be able to see permissions when it's mounted at /storage/*. The physical partition should be mounted at /dev/fuse. Reboot the device and check again whether permissions are visible at /storage/*.
KurianOfBorg said:
Then it's not mounted properly! Your ext4 SD card has directly been mounted at /storage/* instead of through the FUSE driver. You should NOT be able to see permissions when it's mounted at /storage/*. The physical partition should be mounted at /dev/fuse. Reboot the device and check again whether permissions are visible at /storage/*.
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It's still visible at storage
How do I fix it?
clearday said:
It's still visible at storage
How do I fix it?
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It should show up at /storege/* but that should be the FUSE driver's mount point with permissions stripped away. The real ext4 partition will be at /dev/fuse.
Any further progress?
I want to use symlinks and ext4 on my note 2 also.
On aosp roms just use the sdcard binary with an initd script.
Gesendet von meinem GT-N7105 mit Tapatalk 2
DerTeufel1980 said:
On aosp roms just use the sdcard binary with an initd script.
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I'm trying to do this on Tweaked. There is an sdcard binary, however, it appears to be modified by Samsung as it's hardcoded to mount to /storage/sdcard0 and overrides the internal sdcard mount when I use it. It doesn't take a destination parameter like the AOSP/CM version does.
If anyone has an AOSP/CM build environment, could I trouble you for a statically linked version of the sdcard binary? I downloaded CM10.2-nightly, but it's dynamically linked and, of course, doesn't work on the stock based ROMs.
EDIT
It might still be nice, but I figured out a way around it. I hex edited the sdcard binary from the Note2 to use /storage/sdcard1. Then in the mount script, bind mounted it over to /storage/extSdCard. I've rebooted a few times and it seems to be working fine. I am copying data to it over MTP right now. I've attached a zip of the files I'm using.
NOTE: THIS IS NOT A FLASHABLE ZIP.
I might make one later, but this kind of needs to be a manual process anyway.
put the sdcard1 file in /system/xbin
chmod 755 /system/xbin/sdcard1
put the script file in /etc/init.d
set permissions/ownership on it
Now, if you have an ext4 formatted SD, and it's not mounted, you should be able to run the script and have it mount it, run the sdcard1 binary on it, and bind mount it over to the normal extSdCard spot. It will happen at boot if you got it all right.
There are probably improvements that can be made, my shell scripting is a bit rusty. Hopefully this will get people interested in it again, now that the permissions issues are resolved.