Develop Bugs

Utilizing ext partitions on the sdcard with the G2

Hey folks,
I spent a long time searching, but I can't seem to find an answer. I'm using my sdcard and the partitions I created from my G1. I'm running low on space on my sdcard and I realized that the ext partition is not being utilized.
I tried to move some apps to the sd card using the native apps2sd (settings > manage applications) but it seems to be moving it to the main FAT partition and not the gig I set aside as ext.
Before I repartition it and get merge the ext partition with my main partition, I wanted to know if there's any point in having an ext on the G2. If so, how do I take advantage of it (for apps and cache)?
Its an 8gb class 2 sandisk with r/w speeds of over 10mbs. Aside from the gig for ext, I also have a wee bit set aside for swap, which is just about useless now - right?
Thanks for all your help!
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Jury is still out over the need for swap with the Desire Z,some say it makes a difference but what is clear is that with the swap partition enabled,on Unity at least there is a display bug on widgets,I would say that the phone runs ok without it.

I don't mean to be rude, but I don't care about swap. The G2's performance is great. I am concerned with space and before I merge the ext3/4 partition with my main FAT partition, I wanted to know how to utilize that gig I set aside as ext.
Thanks again.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

funkeee said:
I don't mean to be rude, but I don't care about swap. The G2's performance is great. I am concerned with space and before I merge the ext3/4 partition with my main FAT partition, I wanted to know how to utilize that gig I set aside as ext.
Thanks again.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok but you did ask about the swap partition being redundant or not,anyway a gig ext is a waste of space with this phone so repartition and make it smaller 128mb or 256mb should be more than enough

When I was on my rooted stock u20j I used a app called 'Link2SD' which made use of the ext2-partion to store apps on... Maybe try looking at that on the market?
Good luck!

I had an ext partition with a2ext on my G2 but honestly it wasn't needed. I have a ton of apps and still have just under 1 GB of internal memory left.
Swap, as I'm sure you're aware, is pointless on this phone. Compcache is about the only thing I'd use and even that is debatable.

MrEzzzkiel said:
When I was on my rooted stock u20j I used a app called 'Link2SD' which made use of the ext2-partion to store apps on... Maybe try looking at that on the market?
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I will look into it. Do you know if the native apps2sd can be made to use the ext partition?
What I was asking in this thread is: how to make my phone use the ext partition, instead of the main partition.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

funkeee said:
Thank you! I will look into it. Do you know if the native apps2sd can be made to use the ext partition?
What I was asking in this thread is: how to make my phone use the ext partition, instead of the main partition.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it won't use the ext just Fat32.
Instead of the market app, use darktremor's A2SD script. You have much more functionality with it. It also can use ext2, 3, and 4. There's an app that I'll try to locate on my computer for you that gives you a GUI to control it all once you have it installed and active.

Why do I need to partition my sd card for ICS roms?

All of the new ICS roms talk in their instructions to partition your sd card. Some also have a non partition version for those that wish to not partition but those releases take longer to come out.
So why should I partition? I am asking in a general I really want to know why as on all of the rom release pages it just says to partition but no one every talks about why. Why do the newer roms require partitions while the 2.x Android roms never needed this.

Can't anyone let me know?

A lot of ROMs in 2.x support DarkTremor which allows many of the ROMs files to go onto a separate partition on the SD Card. This speeds up the phones response time as you run various apps.
This is most likely why the ICS builds are asking for you to partition the SD Card since they are automatically enabling this which is unlike the 2.. builds in which it was an option.
Doc

DocEsq said:
A lot of ROMs in 2.x support DarkTremor which allows many of the ROMs files to go onto a separate partition on the SD Card. This speeds up the phones response time as you run various apps.
This is most likely why the ICS builds are asking for you to partition the SD Card since they are automatically enabling this which is unlike the 2.. builds in which it was an option.
Doc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this new automatic thing part of ICS or just something differently the rom developers are now doing?
Was DarkTremor built into the 2.x roms? When I first moved from stock to Cyanogen all I remember doing was wiping and installing the zip file, never did anything extra.

LordJezo said:
Is this new automatic thing part of ICS or just something differently the rom developers are now doing?
Was DarkTremor built into the 2.x roms? When I first moved from stock to Cyanogen all I remember doing was wiping and installing the zip file, never did anything extra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that this is something being put in by the developers. The ICS you get from HTC, LG, Samsung etc.. does not have this.
DarkTremor was built into a lot of the 2.x roms and would only become active if you you had the SD Card partitioned properly. It is in Cyanogen but it is something that you did not need to use if you did not want to.
There are some good tutorials out there if you want to give it a try. The big advantages are that it speeds up your phone and frees up precious space on your internal memory.
Doc

I believe the simple answer is that ICS has a bigger footprint and therefore requires more internal system capacity. The phones that come stock with ICS have more system capacity than our EVO 4G. A2sd and an ext partition effectively expand the system partition so that these larger footprints will work on our phones.
Non-a2sd versions take longer because the dev has to figure out how to get ICS working with "insufficient" capacity.
Another development to look at is firerat's mtd mod that allows one to reconfigure the system, cache, and consequently data partitions.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk 2

dcharleyultra said:
I believe the simple answer is that ICS has a bigger footprint and therefore requires more internal system capacity. The phones that come stock with ICS have more system capacity than our EVO 4G. A2sd and an ext partition effectively expand the system partition so that these larger footprints will work on our phones.
Non-a2sd versions take longer because the dev has to figure out how to get ICS working with "insufficient" capacity.
Another development to look at is firerat's mtd mod that allows one to reconfigure the system, cache, and consequently data partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for.
When people use in in GB roms is it just them trying to optimize things better by freeing up system memory by utilizing sd space?

LordJezo said:
Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for.
When people use in in GB roms is it just them trying to optimize things better by freeing up system memory by utilizing sd space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I think.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk 2

That is why I partitioned my drive (to move apps to my sd card and to free up space on the phone). I am on the MikG ROM.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

1TonyC said:
That is why I partitioned my drive (to move apps to my sd card and to free up space on the phone). I am on the MikG ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you need to partition the sd card to move apps? That's a built in feature of GB.
Or do you mean system apps?

I was constantly getting alerts that I was running out of internal memory. This was after I transferred as many apps as I could to the sd card.
So I partitioned my sd card and flashed the MikG ROM. No more memory problems .
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

Partitioning for apps2sd is not to move ur apps to SD card. It will automatically install ALL apps downloaded from play store to the SD. No need to move anything! Its like adding internal memory to our phones! I was hesitant at first but now I wouldn't do it any other way. I noticed a nice increase in performance on ics roms and I can now download whatever the hell I want and not worry about bogging down my internal memory
Sent from my D.I.R.T.y CM9'd EVO 4G using xda premium!

Rather than posting a new thread, I'll ask my question here since it is somewhat relevant to the conversation.
I'm at work while I was updating to jmztaylor's latest nightly, so I do not want to backup my SD onto my work computer. Can apps2sd be flashed at any point after flashing the ROM or does it have to be at the same time as flashing the ROM?

Jaxp3r said:
Rather than posting a new thread, I'll ask my question here since it is somewhat relevant to the conversation.
I'm at work while I was updating to jmztaylor's latest nightly, so I do not want to backup my SD onto my work computer. Can apps2sd be flashed at any point after flashing the ROM or does it have to be at the same time as flashing the ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can be done later.

Captain_Throwback said:
It can be done later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, thanks for the info!

The main difference between the built-in moving of apps and the partition is where the apps go.
With GB's moving (a2sd) the .apk file is moved to a directory on your SD card called .android-secure. The big con to this is that if your SD isn't mounted (for example, if you're moving files from your computer, or on the initial error check on boot), you can't access these apps. You also cannot use any widgets an app might have if it's been moved to .android-secure.
If you have a partition (ext3 generally) then it's a different story. Generally, what happens is that the /data/app directory in your internal storage is symlinked to your partition, /ext. (I think it's /ext/data/app, but I can't remember and haven't used the sd partition for a bit). Pros to this one are much more space, since assuming you have the space and your SD is fast enough you can also symlink your appdata and dalvik-cache. Plus, you are able to use widgets because Android thinks the apps are installed to the internal data. One major con is that you can potentially reduce your SD card's life, since it will be reading and writing a lot more from that portion of it.
And a symlink explanation: In a sense, it points one directory to another area of the filesystem. When I was partitioned Root Explorer showed my symlinked /data/app as this: "/data/app > /ext/data/app". It's a way to have parts of the filesystem "appear" in other areas without having to copy/paste. I've used it to get a few directories to sync to Dropbox without having to keep spare copies of my files in the main Dropbox ones.

Be careful. I just did it an hour ago and everything disappeared from my sd card. So pissed.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

What are partitions..
SLB9884 said:
Be careful. I just did it an hour ago and everything disappeared from my sd card. So pissed.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is because when you re-partition your card (or hard drive,etc..) it basically wipes it. What you are doing is redefining the very volumes that take up space on your card and giving them a starting and ending block address based on the size of the card and the defined size of the partition. You can think of it has a two pieces of glass and you are pouring colored sand in. You pour red in and get your data partition, then you pour in green and get your swap partition so on. Eventually all partitions are defined and ideally will make the most use of the total space on your card.
So when you partition, it's very low level and requires abandoning all data and prior formats on the card unless you are using some special software that attempts to adjust the sizes of the partitions.
Somewhere at the beginning of your card is a small sector that lists all the partitions and their starting/ending blocks, plus other relevant informationj.
So if you plan to partition, you need to back up the data first to your pc or what not.

Storage
Because its an entire system you'll want to to save space on your card, make a backup of any important files because its gonna wipe it and you cant undo it

Here's a couple of great guides for a2sd. Once I finally did my phone performed much better.
http://therootofallevo.com/2011/04/10-step-guide-properly-set-darktremors-a2sd/
http://androplasty.com/2011/08/mini-guide-how-to-re-partition-your-sd-card/

[Q] A2SD question

2 questions
1) is A2SD usually brewed right into ROM's?
2) should I see my internal storage size actually increase if it is working, or does it just make it easier to move things to SD?
One of the reasons I rooted, like everyone else I would guess, is because of the relatively small internal storage on my EVO. I read somewhere that you could get the EVO to think that a 512meg partition on the SD card is actually more internal storage but have been unable to get google to tell me how to do it...

koker93 said:
2 questions
1) is A2SD usually brewed right into ROM's?
2) should I see my internal storage size actually increase if it is working, or does it just make it easier to move things to SD?
One of the reasons I rooted, like everyone else I would guess, is because of the relatively small internal storage on my EVO. I read somewhere that you could get the EVO to think that a 512meg partition on the SD card is actually more internal storage but have been unable to get google to tell me how to do it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U should get more internal memory
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

1) the rom description will say if a2sd is baked in, or if the rom supports it. If a2sd isn't baked then download the zip (which I can post if you want), then flash the rom, then kernel, then gapps, then a2sd. It will reboot 3 times then check the internal memory.
2) it won't show any more internal memory, just that less is being used, as a2sd basically tells the phone where on the SD card to look to find the apps
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

I'm fairly certain I have it working. I using classic, which has it built in. Think so anyway. I installed an a2sd app and it shows the ext3 partition and that its being used. I suppose that when I start to approach the app load I had before I rooted the phone ill know.
Thanks for the answers guys.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda app-developers app

Have you partitioned the SD? If not then you're not using a2sd. Let me know and if not I can help.....
MEZOCLONE

koker93 said:
I'm fairly certain I have it working. I using classic, which has it built in. Think so anyway. I installed an a2sd app and it shows the ext3 partition and that its being used. I suppose that when I start to approach the app load I had before I rooted the phone ill know.
Thanks for the answers guys.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could do (in terminal emulator)
su
a2sd remove
If,after the phone reboots, you have less free internal memory, you know it worked. After verifying that, then go back to term emulator and
su
a2sd reinstall
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

Htc one v help needed

Hey guys/girls
I need some help with SD CARD PARTITIONING. I've searched everywhere and haven't found no answers.
If you could give me a step by step guide, that would be really appreciated and would be looking to donate to the person that has helped me (Enough for a nice enjoyable takeaway with the family) accomplish this.
Thank you very much.
- HSTAR

Sorry forgot to mention that i currently am running
htc one v
cmw
16 gb sd card (don't know what class sorry)
custom rom jelly bean cm10
custom kiss kernal
thanks, hoping that someone could get back at me soon
also could you state what i would need to select like the size/swap
and what would be the benefits. I know a very few, and would like to know the hole list.
Thanks
-hstar

You can create some partition with your current cwm recovery, dude..
Or you can read the details about creating partition on your sdcard here :good:
One of the major the benefit from crating partition on your sdcard is you can run android apps on your sdcard without losing access to them when you mount it.

theiNDrAs said:
You can create some partition with your current cwm recovery, dude..
Or you can read the details about creating partition on your sdcard here :good:
One of the major the benefit from crating partition on your sdcard is you can run android apps on your sdcard without losing access to them when you mount it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
requirements: USB SD Card reader.
pull SD card from phone, insert into USB SD Card reader. Windows should report new drive and content of the drive should be visible.
What is that? i dont think i have a usb sd card reader? and isn't there another easier way to do this?

Hstar said:
Hey guys/girls
I need some help with SD CARD PARTITIONING. I've searched everywhere and haven't found no answers.
If you could give me a step by step guide, that would be really appreciated and would be looking to donate to the person that has helped me (Enough for a nice enjoyable takeaway with the family) accomplish this.
Thank you very much.
- HSTAR
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best way to partitioning an sdcard is always use gparted.
You can have all the guide here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=932824
But the question here what's the point to partition sdcard for one v ? one v has more than enough internal memory space. If it is not enough, I would have created a ROM with sd-ext as one of the prerequisite

ckpv5 said:
The best way to partitioning an sdcard is always use gparted.
You can have all the guide here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=932824
But the question here what's the point to partition sdcard for one v ? one v has more than enough internal memory space. If it is not enough, I would have created a ROM with sd-ext as one of the prerequisite
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For example im running spb shell 3d and i close youtube, everything reloads. which is really annoying for me. So i would just like a way which i can beat the problem.

Hstar said:
For example im running spb shell 3d and i close youtube, everything reloads. which is really annoying for me. So i would just like a way which i can beat the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because of RAM limitation in One V, not space problem.
sd-ext is more on expanding space, swap partition is only used when a kernel with swap capability is flashed to device.

ckpv5 said:
That's because of RAM limitation in One V, not space problem.
sd-ext is more on expanding space, swap partition is only used when a kernel with swap capability is flashed to device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how could I increase ROM?

Hstar said:
So how could I increase ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not possible to increase RAM.
It is not like a PC where we can easily increase RAM by put in more RAM as long as we have slot for it.

So there's nothing I can do? :{
Sent from my One V using xda app-developers app

since it's the device limitation, so you can't do anything about it..
there's no way you can increase the ram of any gadget just like you do on your computer..

So far nthn...cause out of 512 mob ram we get only 383...
Sent from my One V using xda app-developers app

cybervibin said:
So far nthn...cause out of 512 mob ram we get only 383...
Sent from my One V using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you get 512. but only 383 for user space since the rest is used by android system. don't be a b^tch. My hero had left only 60-70 mb for user space after a rom was flashed and still worked good => 383 is more than enough.

Yea once I rooted it 383 is way more than I need
Sent from my One V using xda app-developers app

Make bigger partition.

Hi I currently have 512mb partition how do I change it to 1gb thanks. I'm using 4ext recovery.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium

dodge67 said:
Hi I currently have 512mb partition how do I change it to 1gb thanks. I'm using 4ext recovery.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know how to make partitions with 4ext. You cant do it without losing data. Unless you use gparted
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda app-developers app

I recommend to backup your sd card to pc first.
Then backup your sd-ext partition within 4ext if you have a stuff on the partition.
Within 4ext there should be an option to format sd partitions, then repartition with 1gb. Consider increasing it to 1.5gb if you have spare fat32 space and want to install even more apps.
Finally restore sd contents from pc and sd-ext from recovery.

Thanks guys. I thought I might be able to just increase it without doing anything else but obviously can't. Thanks again.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium

dodge67 said:
Thanks guys. I thought I might be able to just increase it without doing anything else but obviously can't. Thanks again.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can just increase it without losing data.
What were you expecting?

Thought could do it in recovery without needing anything else.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium

dodge67 said:
Thought could do it in recovery without needing anything else.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In 4ext, you can use the "keep fat32 partition". It will save your data.

dodge67 said:
Thought could do it in recovery without needing anything else.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can as above, I just recommend backing things up before just in case

how big can you make the EXT4 partition?
Hi Guys,
I am using a rather old ROM (LeeDroid) and I already increased the EXT 4 to 1Gb.
However, the phone still got full with apps.
Now I bought a bigger card, increased the EXT 4 to 2 GB, but the phone (or ROM) doesn't seem to recognize it...still cant install new apps...
Are there limitations I don't know? Is there a max size of the EXT4?
Thanks for any help...
eddiehk6 said:
I recommend to backup your sd card to pc first.
Then backup your sd-ext partition within 4ext if you have a stuff on the partition.
Within 4ext there should be an option to format sd partitions, then repartition with 1gb. Consider increasing it to 1.5gb if you have spare fat32 space and want to install even more apps.
Finally restore sd contents from pc and sd-ext from recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

pbeutler said:
Hi Guys,
I am using a rather old ROM (LeeDroid) and I already increased the EXT 4 to 1Gb.
However, the phone still got full with apps.
Now I bought a bigger card, increased the EXT 4 to 2 GB, but the phone (or ROM) doesn't seem to recognize it...still cant install new apps...
Are there limitations I don't know? Is there a max size of the EXT4?
Thanks for any help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theres no actual maximum limit, but it highly recommended that you dont make the ext partition more than 1.5gb

OK, thanks, I will reduce it, but is that why the phone doesnt see the increase?
The change I made didnt make ANY difference...
chromium96 said:
Theres no actual maximum limit, but it highly recommended that you dont make the ext partition more than 1.5gb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

pbeutler said:
OK, thanks, I will reduce it, but is that why the phone doesnt see the increase?
The change I made didnt make ANY difference...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can't just swap cards. have you restored restored the ext4 partition from the old card to the new card?
also depends which leedroid rom you are using. you can get much more space by changing hboot and installing the data++ version of his HD port, read the FAQ. this approach requires s-off.
you don't see the increase because a2sd won't report internal memory as "internal + ext". apps get moved to ext automatically. keep them on internal will trick them to sd-ext, i.e. don't manually 'move to sd'
you can use more of the ext space by also moving dalvik to sd-ext, search the leedroid threads on in that FAQ for flashable dalvik to sd zips. there will always be a limit depending on how many apps you install.
i always recommend using an app like 'diskusage' to browse all your partitions, that way you know exactly how they are filling up

Chief,
Thanks for your responses so far... I am thinking to "upgrade" but the LeeDroid 3.3.3 Data ++ ROM is no longer available to download it seems..
Any idea where I might find it?
Thanks again.
eddiehk6 said:
you can't just swap cards. have you restored restored the ext4 partition from the old card to the new card?
also depends which leedroid rom you are using. you can get much more space by changing hboot and installing the data++ version of his HD port, read the FAQ. this approach requires s-off.
you don't see the increase because a2sd won't report internal memory as "internal + ext". apps get moved to ext automatically. keep them on internal will trick them to sd-ext, i.e. don't manually 'move to sd'
you can use more of the ext space by also moving dalvik to sd-ext, search the leedroid threads on in that FAQ for flashable dalvik to sd zips. there will always be a limit depending on how many apps you install.
i always recommend using an app like 'diskusage' to browse all your partitions, that way you know exactly how they are filling up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse