Develop Bugs

EXT4

I have a question, has anyone tried to implement EXT4 on the Evo? I'm coming from a G1 and I know I used to HAVE to have an EXT partition on my sdcard. So now I am wondering because I know there is a performance boost of some sort with it.

I was curious also since even on my Hero, some roms supported the EXT4. I did read, however, that EXT4 didn't really provide much for the use of the phone so nobody really bothered with it and just stuck with EXT3.

Journaling, can someone explain?

So my question is 2 fold. 1, I have no internet whatsoever so Tether is very important to me and having the fastest speeds possible would be ideal.
Upon my quest to get a decent speed with tethering I've noticed this Journaling situation. What is it and can someone explain what it entails?

Journaling has no effect on internet speed (unless the phone is pulling somthing from the disk like a bookmark),will not affect "information on the fly",like the internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system
Wikipedia said:
A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of the changes that will be made in a journal (usually a circular log in a dedicated area of the file system) before committing them to the main file system. In the event of a system crash or power failure, such file systems are quicker to bring back online and less likely to become corrupted.[1]
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I have the no journal mod on my phone and it makes it a little more snappier.

musclehead84 said:
I have the no journal mod on my phone and it makes it a little more snappier.
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If you dont wish to use journaling why are you not using ext 2?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

You silly goose. We don't have ext2 for are phones yet
Sent From Da Hood.

That's some subtle trolling.

Just in case wiki isn't being clear. Here is what the difference between journaling and no journaling.
scenario 1 w/ no journaling:
you surf the web, pull down image > data written to cache > save to disk
if your phone crash and reboot then you lost the image that's being pull down
scenario 1 w/ journaling:
you surf the web, pull down image > data written to disk as image loaded
if your phone crash and reboot then you have the image save as much as it was downloaded.
Final point: it's no big deal whether you have journaling or not.
scenario 2 w/ no journaling:
You work on a very important spreadsheet as you hit save > data written to cache > save to disk
if the software have recovery feature, and the phone crash before you hit save, then you lost all changes prior to the last saved because the temp file that the software use wasn't written to the disk.
scenario 2 w/ journaling:
You work on a very important spreadsheet as you hit save > data written to disk.
if the software have recovery feature, and the phone crash before you hit save, then you get to choose the recovery file which is the temp file that constantly being written to the disk.
The difference: hours of work.

Isn't the ext system just the file system for Linux based systems? Like FAT and NFTS is for Windows? And isn't ext2 the precursor to ext3, and ext the precursor to ext4? Like FAT, then FAT16, FAT32, etc? If that's correct, why would we want ext2 in the first place if we have ext4?

running_the_dream said:
Isn't the ext system just the file system for Linux based systems? Like FAT and NFTS is for Windows? And isn't ext2 the precursor to ext3, and ext the precursor to ext4? Like FAT, then FAT16, FAT32, etc? If that's correct, why would we want ext2 in the first place if we have ext4?
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The benefit of ext 4 over ext 2 is journaling or stability on a cellphone. If your not worried about error correction or saving files before a crash then ext2 should be used as it is way faster. You think your ext4 scores improved, ext 2 would blow that away. When I was on the moment ext2 was used but people were concerned about the reliability. doesn't make much since if you turn the journaling off to use a slower fs.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

dreamsforgotten said:
The benefit of ext 4 over ext 2 is journaling or stability on a cellphone. If your not worried about error correction or saving files before a crash then ext2 should be used as it is way faster. You think your ext4 scores improved, ext 2 would blow that away. When I was on the moment ext2 was used but people were concerned about the reliability. doesn't make much since if you turn the journaling off to use a slower fs.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
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Thanks for the info. So what's the limitation of ext2? Meaning, if it's so much faster than the newer file system, ext4, why would the devs even bother making ext4? Does it allocate blocks of info better or hold more info? I haven't been able to find much useful info online concerning ext4.

ext2 was created before there is journaling option. In a way, journaling is kinda like after thought for ext2. But if you look at ext file systems, they are written for linux and mostly for PC. so, power requirement isn't a big issue. So, it's inherently by design that ext2 which have less feature and build back in the older system would use less power. I think ext4 is basically ext2 on steroid. Better journaling and larger file/partition size limitation. So, the size limitation is a non issue for such small platform like smartphone.

running_the_dream said:
Thanks for the info. So what's the limitation of ext2? Meaning, if it's so much faster than the newer file system, ext4, why would the devs even bother making ext4? Does it allocate blocks of info better or hold more info? I haven't been able to find much useful info online concerning ext4.
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Im not that advanced with the two myself I just vaguely remember the back and fourth when this came out for the moment on sdx. there's nothing wrong with ext4 but for a speed junky with no concern for the safety net ext2 boast faster speeds. That being said, wer dont need yet another fs to have to support with themes/roms. now as fast as your pc, you will definetly benefit using the ext4 system. In that case ext2 is obsolete to a point.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the helpful info guys. I have yet another question. When flashing another Rom, do you always have to re-flash the no journaling even if you've done so with the previous Rom?

imwillzillla said:
Thanks for the helpful info guys. I have yet another question. When flashing another Rom, do you always have to re-flash the no journaling even if you've done so with the previous Rom?
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You better be very careful when you flash "another ROM". First not all ROM support ext4, and not all support no-journaling. I'm not well verse in the XDA myself either but from what I understand, at-least in the linux space, you can format w/ or w/o journaling, and then there is option disable on boot also, but the kernel has to support it. So, it's all depend the kernel you use support it or not. I don't think ATM, there are many/any tools in Android development space that support conversion between journaling/non-journaling, and especially when going back to RFS. There may not need to be a conversion between journaling and non-journaling since those are technically just how data being handle upon written to the disk, so data structure on the disc should be the same. But, I'm not entirely positive about it. So, I would avoid switching between ROM which doesn't support the same format as it was originally format.

I could be wrong this but the op's question regarded tehtering speed. Now I can see the advantages/disadvantages of journeling while using the phone directly to surf the web but if you are just using the data sevice through the phone on another computer/laptop would you really see any of the advs/disadvs?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

helchez said:
I could be wrong this but the op's question regarded tehtering speed. Now I can see the advantages/disadvantages of journeling while using the phone directly to surf the web but if you are just using the data sevice through the phone on another computer/laptop would you really see any of the advs/disadvs?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
The answer is yes
I mean, because the data only passing through, and your phone is acting not much difference than a router, so there should no any difference in speed. or maybe at best how the tether app load, unless of course the tether app is busy writing log file or something.

running_the_dream said:
Thanks for the info. So what's the limitation of ext2? Meaning, if it's so much faster than the newer file system, ext4, why would the devs even bother making ext4? Does it allocate blocks of info better or hold more info? I haven't been able to find much useful info online concerning ext4.
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Click to collapse
ext3 and ext4 were continuations of development of ext2.
Wikipedia said:
The ext3 file system adds, over its predecessor:
* A Journaling file system.
* Online file system growth.
* Htree indexing for larger directories.
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Wikipedia said:
* Large file system //now up to 16TB instead of 16 GB
* Extents //replaces traditional block mapping with the ability to allocate multiple blocks in a group
* Persistent pre-allocation //for when it is necessary to allocate a contiguous block before you are ready to write to disk
* Delayed allocation //aka allocate memory and write when the cache is flushed
* Break 32,000 subdirectory limit
* Journal checksumming //to more quickly check the integrity of the journal over ext3
* Faster file system checking
* Multiblock allocator
* Improved timestamps //which require more writes to disk
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[Q] Pros and Cons of sd-ext?

Hi!
Just would like to know the pros and cons of formatting into ext4 on my SD.
As far as I can find :
Pros : Supports files larger than 4GB as Fat32 cannot
That's about it I think...
Cons : Windows cannot natively detect such a partition
Why I ask this is I just saw a this post
blahbl4hblah said:
Having sd-ext partition on your sdcard will always be benefical, the phone will run so much better believe me
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I'm ready to go ext4 if there's any performance gain, who wouldn't? But what gain is there, and what would I lose in return?

ArmedandDangerous said:
Hi!
Just would like to know the pros and cons of formatting into ext4 on my SD.
As far as I can find :
Pros : Supports files larger than 4GB as Fat32 cannot
That's about it I think...
Cons : Windows cannot natively detect such a partition
Why I ask this is I just saw a this post
I'm ready to go ext4 if there's any performance gain, who wouldn't? But what gain is there, and what would I lose in return?
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Click to collapse
You're mixing things up here a bit I think. Sd-ext referrs to having a partition on your sdcard to allow support for Apps2SD (basically being able to move apps to your SD card and run them from there in order to free up space); you'd basically repartition the card so that there's an ext3/4 partition for apps and a FAT32 partition for data.
As for the ext4 filesystem, it does allow for larger file sizes and is also a bit faster but you're correct in the fact that you won't be able to natively mount it on a Windows system.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

OriginalGabriel said:
You're mixing things up here a bit I think. Sd-ext referrs to having a partition on your sdcard to allow support for Apps2SD (basically being able to move apps to your SD card and run them from there in order to free up space); you'd basically repartition the card so that there's an ext3/4 partition for apps and a FAT32 partition for data.
As for the ext4 filesystem, it does allow for larger file sizes and is also a bit faster but you're correct in the fact that you won't be able to natively mount it on a Windows system.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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But don't we already have Apps2SD in GB, + all the apps that do it for you. How is this different, apart from some apps that can't natively be moved? And why is it faster? Internal memory should always load faster, should it not?

ArmedandDangerous said:
But don't we already have Apps2SD in GB, + all the apps that do it for you. How is this different, apart from some apps that can't natively be moved? And why is it faster? Internal memory should always load faster, should it not?
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GB has the ability to do Apps2SD but it requires the partitioning as, I believe, a symlink is set up so that partition on the sdcard acts as a part of the devices internal storage.
As for speed, just moving apps to your sdcard won't speed up your phone; what that poster you quoted was talking about (most likely, I'd have to see the original thread) was converting your devices partitions (/system, /data, /cache, etc.) from ext3 to ext4. ext4 is a bit faster however some ROMs do not fully support it.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Ok, let's clear this up. GB has Apps2FAT32 (a2sd) natively. A2EXT is completely different but none of that is the point of the OP's question.
When it comes to our phones - there is almost no notable performance gain when using EXT4 over any other EXT format. Our phones don't utilize FAT32 internally - just on the sdcard. EXT4 is designed for use with massive file systems. A couple Gigs really doesn't access it's full potential.
While the question is interesting, I'm not really sure what you're planning on doing. Don't format your sdcard entirely in EXT format, and don't attempt to format your phones partitions as FAT32. The result would be... just don't do it.

Just read this on the portal
http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...hd2-data-successfully-moved-to-ext-partition/
This has two main advantages: larger sized data partition and more speed as EXT is inherently faster for I/O purposes.
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How do I go about formatting a section of my SD into ext4, with existing SD data intact.
And how do I move apps that area already in my phone's internal memory to the ext4 partition? I know there's an option in ROM Manager and CWM, but just don't want to mess anything up

ArmedandDangerous said:
Just read this on the portal
http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...hd2-data-successfully-moved-to-ext-partition/
How do I go about formatting a section of my SD into ext4, with existing SD data intact.
And how do I move apps that area already in my phone's internal memory to the ext4 partition? I know there's an option in ROM Manager and CWM, but just don't want to mess anything up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, only two ROMs actually support the real A2SD: PyroMod and MexDroid. It's recommended you format the EXT partition to EXT4 before you actually flash either of those ROMs, and you have to rename MexDroid in order to get A2SD working.

blackknightavalon said:
As far as I know, only two ROMs actually support the real A2SD: PyroMod and MexDroid. It's recommended you format the EXT partition to EXT4 before you actually flash either of those ROMs, and you have to rename MexDroid in order to get A2SD working.
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Thankfully I am already using meXdroid~ Guess I'll just wait for the new version in the next few days to do the formatting. Can I backup all my apps with Titanium Backup, flash ROM (wipe data/cache and dalvik cache), restore with Titanium.
Or would I have to reinstall every app again so that it goes into the ext4 partition?

blackknightavalon said:
As far as I know, only two ROMs actually support the real A2SD: PyroMod and MexDroid. It's recommended you format the EXT partition to EXT4 before you actually flash either of those ROMs, and you have to rename MexDroid in order to get A2SD working.
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There's a script to accomplish this on pretty much any ROM. It *should* work on current ROMs too. It's called 'darktremor a2sd'. Still find it amazing people forget about that one when this question comes up because it's one oldest methods of obtaining a2sd.
I'm still not understanding the OP's question. Are you wanting to do this for an IO performance gain or for space? I can understand doing it for space if you have a ton of apps but if you're doing it for performance it's a waste of your time. You're internal partitions should already be in EXT4 format (use 4EXT Recovery if they're not).

KCRic said:
There's a script to accomplish this on pretty much any ROM. It *should* work on current ROMs too. It's called 'darktremor a2sd'. Still find it amazing people forget about that one when this question comes up because it's one oldest methods of obtaining a2sd.
I'm still not understanding the OP's question. Are you wanting to do this for an IO performance gain or for space? I can understand doing it for space if you have a ton of apps but if you're doing it for performance it's a waste of your time. You're internal partitions should already be in EXT4 format (use 4EXT Recovery if they're not).
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I'm doing it for the performance. Have been using 4EXT for a few days and loving it. Already converted internal memory to ext4 from ext3. If further partitioning my SD card for performance is really not noticeable, then I guess I've got nothing to worry about

File system question

I have tried to find information on this, and I'm struggling.
What file system does the evo use by default? I know it's EXT2 and fat32 for camera card, but the main partitions I do not know. Yaffs?
I've heard things about Yaffs2+EXT2 (refered to as godmode), using EXT2, using Yaffs, and using EXT4, with or without journaling. I want to make my file system faster. I keep finding very diluted information that never gives the whole picture. How does yaffs2+EXT2 work? How do the different options perform relative to eachother?

I'm guessing nobody is going to answer... got pushed a couple pages back on the forum

I'll tell you what I know, which is limited. the ext2/3/4 are used for storing apps/cache on the sdcard. It is separate from the fat32 partition which is where everything else on the sdcard is stored, ie pics/roms/backups... Having an ext partition setup will not automatically speed up your phone. You must use a sdcard that is class 6 or higher to give you the speed you desire. The ext2 partition is used with godmode i believe. I had better results from the non-godmode synergy, so I didn't bother learning everything that I should have. Ext3 is what is primarily used for DTA2SD, which I have been using for 2 or 3 years now. I have yet to see a rom that uses ext4. The only thing I have seen about it, is the recommendation to stay away.
Not sure about YAFFS, you could always google it though.

Thanks, this was helpful.
Appreciate the comments.

I am running ext4 from a a script on my gtab. Can i run ext4 with this script on the evo?

I read somewhere that the evo cannot use ext 4. Check out synergy god mode, it has some weird hybrid file system if I remember correctly.

EVO default is YAFFS2. Godmode is YAFFS2 + EXT2. EXT2 and file sytem and YAFFS2 as wear leveler layer.
Read a little on Linux history, I know that EXT2,3, and 4 are newer than any YAFFS, with EXT4 being the new standard for now. Basically all of the new phones use EXT4 now, that was made the new standard or something of the sort with Gingerbread.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

Formatting Nexus 7 2013 to F2FS

Hello. I want to format my Nexus 7 2013 32 GB to F2FS. There is slow downs sometimes so I hope formatting will improve speed. I have some questions:
1. Is it compatible with CyanogenMod 13?
2. Is it safe? Can it kill my device?
3. Should I format all partitions or cache and data is enough?
4. Is there visible difference in performance?
Thanks.

NAUSHNIK52 said:
Hello. I want to format my Nexus 7 2013 32 GB to F2FS. There is slow downs sometimes so I hope formatting will improve speed. I have some questions:
1. Is it compatible with CyanogenMod 13?
2. Is it safe? Can it kill my device?
3. Should I format all partitions or cache and data is enough?
4. Is there visible difference in performance?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. As long as the kernel you have is compatible. don't know specifically the CM13 kernel
2. Might be outdated but android's built in storage fixing and maintaining tools may not be compatible. So any storage errors can lead to bigger problems than ext4.
3. f2fs generally shows gains in write performance so cache and data would be fine. system would require rom support.
4. Probably not to the extent that 2012 N7 users see I wouldn't recommend doing this at all really, generally newer the hardware especially 2013+ the less f2fs will actually do. I would doubt you'd get any real increase in read speed which would be the part you would notice.