Dual / multi boot on G4? - G4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

In recent years I've used CM on my Android devices but now that I have a G4 and the camera and camera app is so good, I'm unhappy to give that up if I can find a way to get the other features I want. (eg, CM/Lineage Privacy Manager, etc)
So I thought one option might be to dual-boot either a stock image or stock-based ROM for when I want to use the high-performance camera, and my regular AOSP-based image the rest of the time. Can I do this on a G4?
One thing that worries me is it seems the base system takes up about ~10GB and G4's only have 32GB onboard. Can I share some storage between the OS's? Presumably at least the MicroSD?
TIA

Here you go https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/dual-boot-t3241460/page6 . I I used to dual boot Imperium/CM14.1.
The storage wasn't a problem. It took only a few GBs and the rest of free space was shared (you see files in different places, something like /sdcard on main, /data/dualboot/romname/sdcard if I remember correctly. I recommend full backup first. Dual booting can bring some additional bugs.
You can share data between apps, but I haven't managed to make it working properly.

Amightypotato said:
Here you go https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/dual-boot-t3241460/page6 . I I used to dual boot Imperium/CM14.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh, thanks. I was considering Imperium.
Amightypotato said:
The storage wasn't a problem. It took only a few GBs and the rest of free space was shared (you see files in different places, something like /sdcard on main, /data/dualboot/romname/sdcard if I remember correctly. I recommend full backup first. Dual booting can bring some additional bugs.
You can share data between apps, but I haven't managed to make it working properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't so much thinking about sharing app data (which I'd assume would be a very dicey proposition), more just having common folders like Downloads/pics/audio available to both instances. (Since you only end up with about ~22GB out of 32GB total storage available in a fresh install, I assume adding another OS instance would leave only ~12GB left for local storage, which could become be a real issue for me. (Just my APK/app data archive on my current daily driver takes up around 9GB right now)
I'm still trying to get my head around the various symlinks and fused partitions that Android uses. The FAQ from TWRP on what the /data/media folder is I just read yesterday and had no idea that was like that. (Or that their nandroid backups don't bother to backup anything at all under /sdcard, basically.. )

Related

[UTIL][DISCONT'D] CFLagFix 1.90 (ext2+ext3+resize+uninst support)

THIS TOOL HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED. IF YOU REALLY NEED A LAGFIX, USE VOODOO. HOWEVER, WITH LATEST ROMS I DONT PERSONALLY FEEL A LAGFIX IS STILL NEEDED, THUS I DON'T USE ONE, AND WILL NOT CONTINUE DEVELOPING ONE
About
Here it is, yet another LagFix tool. It's certainly not the first, but it does offer some things others do not (at the time of this writing).
This patch uses the ext2/ext3 image in /data method.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR FROYO USERS
(1) Use ext2. ext3 is NOT supported on Froyo, only Eclair
(2) The installation will fail if you apps installed to SD. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage -> On SD card. Click each app and click "Move to phone". In the end, the "On SD card" list should be empty. Reboot. Install CFLagFix. When the fix is installed, you can move apps back to the SD card if you wish.
Features
- Lots of checks to make sure the fix is possible
- This is not just based on a script, but a lot of commands are performed and their results rigorously checked to be what is expected
- You can select (from a set of presets) which folders you want to lagfix
- You can select how big the image should be (between 128mb and all the free space in /data minus 250mb, to prevent low storage space warnings)
- The actual moving of data from RFS to the image is done in a boot loop, while the files are not in use. This minimizes the chance of corruption during move (settings being lost, etc)
- Comes with e2fsprogs, and e2fsck is performed each boot to fix a corrupted image
- Comes with it's own busybox, so no need to install it, and no chance for conflicts
- If an ext2 image is used, it is tuned to not reserve any blocks
- If an ext3 image is used, it is tuned to not reserve any blocks and use journalling
- Also moves databases (safely)
- Uninstall option
- Resize option, resize your partition whenever you want, to whatever (possible) size you want
- "Full automatic" option, this will max out the image size while still preventing the low storage space warning, and will also reclaim the space from the backup folders and automatically resize the image to max again after that space is reclaimed. This generally results in an image of about 1.5 GB. It'll also leave some space in case the system still needs to write in /data but not in the image.
- Progress monitor ("educated guess" about progress, not exact, but pretty close, usually!)
A fair number of these seem to be unique at the time of this writing.
Notes
- e2fsck result is stored in /data/cflf/e2fsck_result.txt
- list of mounted directories is stored in /data/cflf/mountlist.txt
- if ext3 is used /data/cflf/imageisext3 file will be present
- my own test rom is JM2+root-with-update.zip+ClockworkMod
Known issues
- In case the image is heavily corrupted, e2fsck may take longer to fix it than the rest of the boot process. Theoretically this could result in data loss
- ext3 does not seem to be supported on Froyo ROMs JP1/JP2/JP3
Credits
- mimocan, ykk_five, RyanZA, and all others who have chipped in for various lagfixes
- cynogen, e2fsprogs built for ARM
- kalpik, busybox APK
- ofcourse the original authors of those tools as well
- myself, this is all based on ADB Magic code
Donations
Please feel free to donate: http://www.jongma.org/dx.php
Requirements
- Windows
- Microsoft .Net 3.5 framework
- Phone in USB debugging mode
- SuperUser
Before using ...
I strongly recommend using ClockWorkMod and making a backup of your ROM. Just in case Also, during any operation, I advise having your phone hooked up so I can draw power from the computer.
Usage
- Unzip the attached file somewhere
- Make sure your phone is connected in USB debugging mode
- Make sure you have SuperUser installed
- Run CFLagFix.exe
There are three tabs:
Install LagFix
This tab allows you to install the LagFix, and lets you configure some options.
I recommand leaving the "Full automatic" option turned on, if you do, just press "Install !" and everything will be arranged for you. If you turn this option off, you can configure some settings manually, but note that using this does not reclaim wasted space of the backup files.
Note that you can still select to use ext3 instead of ext2, even if in "Full automatic" mode.
When you press "Install !", the program will be finished quickly, but your phone may continue working for 30 minutes or so, and keep rebooting very often. If you have a lot of data installed, it may take even longer.
Do NOT even touch your phone until Android boots up again!
A lot of things are checked before the install will start. You will need about 50% free in /data for the operation to work, but it will check this before making any modifications on your phone.
Resize Partition
This tab allows you to change the current ext2/ext3 partition size. The slider will only let you select values that are actually possible, i.e., bigger than your current data usage and smaller than the total space that could be occupied by the image.
Clicking "Resize !" will reboot your phone and resize the partition. Again, this can take an awfully long time! Don't panic, just wait it out.
Uninstall LagFix
This will uninstall the LagFix. It will completely remove it. Before removing it, however, it will move all files out of the image and back into the normal filesystem again, so no data is lost.
Clicking "Uninstall !" will reboot your phone and perform the uninstallation. Again, this can take an awfully long time! Don't panic, just wait it out.
Note that uninstallation will only work if you are using less than 50% of the device's capacity, but again the program will check this before making any modifications on your phone.
You can only uninstall installations of CFLagFix 1.20 and newer !!
BETA
This is very beta, use at your own risk!
WARNING
This patch is NOT compatible with ANY other lagfix tools. Either undo those completely, or just don't use this. If you were using one of those, I'd personally recommend a complete reflash of the firmware before using this patch.
WARNING #2
Before trying 1.80, please see this post.
Download
<< 1.70: 632
Changelogs
1.80, 15-08-10
- Redone some crucial parts of the patching procedure (for all install, resize and uninstall). Should fix all remaining issues!
1.70, 13-08-10
- Added /data/app-private/ folder
- Added progress monitor (estimates.... not exact)
- Moved /dbdata/databases to it's own partition, much faster for smaller read/writes
1.60, 12-08-10
- Updated codebase to ADB Magic 0.9, fixes issues with some weird pre-existing installations of busybox
1.50, 12-08-10
- Added "full auto" mode, "one click" solution for beginners
- Added ext3 support
- Added resize support
- Added uninstall support
- Fixed some issues
- Update scripts
1.20, 11-08-10
- Everything has been moved to /data/cflf/ , this - amongst other things - fixes issues with JP3
1.01, 11-08-10
- Adusted a permission error which could cause the system to be unable to create any new databases
Fix for 1.00 users: there isn't any yet. This is *beep* to fix manually. I would advise this "unpatch" method posted here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7616676&postcount=29, then repatch with the latest version.
CFLagFix.exe doesn't even run for me.
"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to termiate the application."
lyno said:
CFLagFix.exe doesn't even run for me.
"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to termiate the application."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sure you have MS .Net 3.5 framework installed ?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&displaylang=en
The error message is a DLL initialization error... as CFLagFix doesn't explicitly use any DLLs, my guess would be the .Net framework.
Chainfire said:
You sure you have MS .Net 3.5 framework installed ?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&displaylang=en
The error message is a DLL initialization error... as CFLagFix doesn't explicitly use any DLLs, my guess would be the .Net framework.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yes! I removed all .net frameworks on this works laptop to be able to install some old COM files. Will re-install and test.
This looks so awesome! Thank you!
Any chance for open sourcing this?
installing now
Well im gonna give this a shot, have just installed the african jg8 and rooted,am doing this fix now.
Then ill try the 1.2 overclock on top, ill post a score shortly .
Not bad though i see one problem... it's windows only ^^
select which folders you want to lagfix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, bit of a noob here - what exactly do you mean by this? Why would we only want to 'lagfix' certain folders and not the whole thing?
just tried out your tool on my stock DXJF4 (with apps in it, not clean condition). With default size as well (around 1200 mb)
Actually I used mimocan's fix before but everything was wiped by mistake and everything went to default condition.
After the process finished, the Android displayed information about damaged internal SD, but everything was working. Is that expectable?
Now I got 2260 using Quadrant, leap from 1700 with mimocan's fix.
Nice job Chainfire!!
Can't wait to use JM2 / DDJG4
btw, can I post this on my blog?
:update :
whenever I open gallery, it always says no sdcard detected... do you know how to fix this? -> it doesn't recognize both my internal & external sd, but i can browse them properly in Estrongs/astro
veenone said:
After the process finished, the Android displayed information about damaged internal SD, but everything was working.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds scary, think I'll wait a while before trying!
RyanZA said:
This looks so awesome! Thank you!
Any chance for open sourcing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at the moment, but maybe in the future
Tayutama said:
Not bad though i see one problem... it's windows only ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't be helped. Not going to release a non-Windows versions. Perhaps wine/mono will make it work, though I doubt it
danamoult said:
Sorry, bit of a noob here - what exactly do you mean by this? Why would we only want to 'lagfix' certain folders and not the whole thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't really lagfix all folders, as the process where the image is mounted is run asynchronously with the rest of the boot process. There will be havoc if the system can't load certain files because the image is not mounted yet. This is why you can't just lagfix the entire system, but only certain parts.
In the presets I have only added those folders that I feel are mostly safe to lagfix AND would actually benefit the speed of the phone.
Also, for some folders there is some discussion to whether or not it is beneficial to have them in the image, like /dbdata/databases. I personally feel it should be lagfixed, but not everyone agrees.
veenone said:
just tried out your tool on my stock DXJF4 (with apps in it, not clean condition). With default size as well (around 1200 mb)
Actually I used mimocan's fix before but everything was wiped by mistake and everything went to default condition.
After the process finished, the Android displayed information about damaged internal SD, but everything was working. Is that expectable?
Now I got 2260 using Quadrant, leap from 1700 with mimocan's fix.
Nice job Chainfire!!
Can't wait to use JM2 / DDJG4
btw, can I post this on my blog?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not seen the "damaged internal SD" message before in any of my tests. It might be ROM specific (I'm personally using JM2). I would recommend rebooting (using the "hold power button + press power off" method) and see if the message still comes up. Let me know what happens.
And yes, feel free to post about it in your blog.
veenone said:
just tried out your tool on my stock DXJF4 (with apps in it, not clean condition). With default size as well (around 1200 mb)
Actually I used mimocan's fix before but everything was wiped by mistake and everything went to default condition.
After the process finished, the Android displayed information about damaged internal SD, but everything was working. Is that expectable?
Now I got 2260 using Quadrant, leap from 1700 with mimocan's fix.
Nice job Chainfire!!
Can't wait to use JM2 / DDJG4
btw, can I post this on my blog?
:update :
whenever I open gallery, it always says no sdcard detected... do you know how to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Replying to the same message again, hehe.
Now that I'm thinking about, how exactly did your device got wiped ? Anything less than an actual firmware flash does not completely remove mimocan's fix, AFAIK. To completely undo it you'd have to completely reflash (and get stock kernel back), and possibly remove the ext partition from your SD. In other words, if you "wiped" from recovery, this is not a removal of mimocan (AFAIK).
Gallery is working fine for me, by the way, and as stated above, I have not seen that message in my tests with JM2 (neither with a lot of apps installed nor a clean flash).
(Then again, this is the first release, so there might be issues )
Is it possible to do this onto an external SD card (provided one has one that is fast enough) so we do not risk any possible further damage to the internal card due to excessive IO.
I believe it would be quite difficult to replace the internal SD card, and in order to load custom roms (with update.zip) it must be mounted to the internal SD.
I'd much rather replace external SD cards if I had to choose between the internal and an external.
well everything was restored to factory state when I went to CSC menu. I think mimocan's fix also removed since I got 800 in quadrant score.
Update: after I rebooted the sgs for a couple times, now it recognize both sd cards.. weird.. But that's fine since the issue is solved now!
Daemos said:
Is it possible to do this onto an external SD card (provided one has one that is fast enough) so we do not risk any possible further damage to the internal card due to excessive IO.
I believe it would be quite difficult to replace the internal SD card, and in order to load custom roms (with update.zip) it must be mounted to the internal SD.
I'd much rather replace external SD cards if I had to choose between the internal and an external.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This fix is using exactly same space that is already reserved for user data and programs. And it is on the internal SD. So I really can't think how this fix could cause any damage at all. Thoughts?
I selected maximum Space, and now i have low internal memory. How to remove this fix or change the Space?
Daemos said:
Is it possible to do this onto an external SD card (provided one has one that is fast enough) so we do not risk any possible further damage to the internal card due to excessive IO.
I believe it would be quite difficult to replace the internal SD card, and in order to load custom roms (with update.zip) it must be mounted to the internal SD.
I'd much rather replace external SD cards if I had to choose between the internal and an external.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use mimocan's fix if you want to use external SD - it is especially made for that! His thread is a sticky (at the top) in this forum.
veenone said:
well everything was restored to factory state when I went to CSC menu. I think mimocan's fix also removed since I got 800 in quadrant score.
Update: after I rebooted the sgs for a couple times, now it recognize both sd cards.. weird.. But that's fine since the issue is solved now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mimocan's fix uses Odin. Like update.zip's, a "factory reset" does not remove patches made in this way, only a real flash does.
Either way, happy to see your problem is solved
I think the problem was the system didn't mount sd cards properly after several boots from CFLagFix. So it needs more reboots to mount the sdcard with structure change properly...
Chainfire said:
Not at the moment, but maybe in the future
Can't be helped. Not going to release a non-Windows versions. Perhaps wine/mono will make it work, though I doubt it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame you can't open source this.
Personally, there is no way I'm going to run something like this without source - I believe you are just trying to help us out, but there is always the chance that you could be doing something damaging by mistake, or even installing a trojan on purpose.
I'll be following release though, looks awesome and hopefully you'll be able to open source this soon!

Making a bigger /data partition for apps

I've been wanting to make a larger /data partition on a Droid Incredible. I mean, after all, it comes with a lot of storage. But there is not nearly enough for apps. Sure. I can use my SD card. But unless there is something I'm not aware of, you can only install some apps to the SD and even when you do, pieces of that app still exist in /data. But what's even worse is the fact that I already use my SD card for movies and videos and such and I just don't really use the unclaimed space of which there is plenty, in the phone, for that sort of thing and yet I can't use it to install apps. I haven't found too much on this topic outside of using App2SD. I did find a lot of talk of using parted and even gparted. But this talk is generally about partitioning your SD card. If I were to use parted or gparted to resize the /data partition at the expense of another partition's space and I did it properly, would the Android system not boot because of it? And if this is doable, is there a better, easier way to do it than using parted and adb or gparted? Also, is there a guide for resizing your /data partition? I could probably survive without one if I had to but it would really be helpful just in case there are some big DO NOT DO's that should be avoided that aren't obvious. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
enigmatl said:
I've been wanting to make a larger /data partition on a Droid Incredible. I mean, after all, it comes with a lot of storage. But there is not nearly enough for apps. Sure. I can use my SD card. But unless there is something I'm not aware of, you can only install some apps to the SD and even when you do, pieces of that app still exist in /data. But what's even worse is the fact that I already use my SD card for movies and videos and such and I just don't really use the unclaimed space of which there is plenty, in the phone, for that sort of thing and yet I can't use it to install apps. I haven't found too much on this topic outside of using App2SD. I did find a lot of talk of using parted and even gparted. But this talk is generally about partitioning your SD card. If I were to use parted or gparted to resize the /data partition at the expense of another partition's space and I did it properly, would the Android system not boot because of it? And if this is doable, is there a better, easier way to do it than using parted and adb or gparted? Also, is there a guide for resizing your /data partition? I could probably survive without one if I had to but it would really be helpful just in case there are some big DO NOT DO's that should be avoided that aren't obvious. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
theres around 780mb in there thats not enough?
JoelZ9614 said:
theres around 780mb in there thats not enough?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's talking about /data/data/ which is like 150mb, I use the NotEnoughSpace app it lets you store data on cache, emmc, sd card, you should check it out.
Well, I messed with notenoughspace too which was my eason for posting. This was the app that made me say enough is enough, can I just resize /data/data?.
-1- So much space on the incredible is going to waste while programs such as these would have me put apps on the SD where I really do want space for my other stuff like music and movies.
-2- Unless I missed a button or option, NotEnoughSpace came off as annoying to me. I would go into apps and wait for a minute for it to scan every time I do it and then I pick an app, for example Beejive. It makes me move it ONE FILE AT A TIME. And even then, there is stuff you can't move. Can I not just move the app, all of it in one click?
But most importantly, I just want more space on /data/data. I want to resize the partition. The phone has what, 8 gigs on it and allows 150 mb for apps in there which is just crazy.
Can I resize the partition where apps are stored (/data/data) by way of parted or gparted? to avoid the annoyance of using my external storage which I want to use for movies and music? There's probably 6 or so gigs on my phone I'll never use for media that should be meant for apps.
Has anybody resized the data partition? Are there consequences to doing it if it's done properly? Is there a guide? What is the easiest way to do this? Any help would be appreciated.
enigmatl said:
Well, I messed with notenoughspace too which was my eason for posting. This was the app that made me say enough is enough, can I just resize /data/data?.
-1- So much space on the incredible is going to waste while programs such as these would have me put apps on the SD where I really do want space for my other stuff like music and movies.
-2- Unless I missed a button or option, NotEnoughSpace came off as annoying to me. I would go into apps and wait for a minute for it to scan every time I do it and then I pick an app, for example Beejive. It makes me move it ONE FILE AT A TIME. And even then, there is stuff you can't move. Can I not just move the app, all of it in one click?
But most importantly, I just want more space on /data/data. I want to resize the partition. The phone has what, 8 gigs on it and allows 150 mb for apps in there which is just crazy.
Can I resize the partition where apps are stored (/data/data) by way of parted or gparted? to avoid the annoyance of using my external storage which I want to use for movies and music? There's probably 6 or so gigs on my phone I'll never use for media that should be meant for apps.
Has anybody resized the data partition? Are there consequences to doing it if it's done properly? Is there a guide? What is the easiest way to do this? Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ask conap hes good with this type of thing
Making progress but still need help.
There's some talk on the net that you can modify the size of the .img files that nandroid makes and simply flash them back to your phone.
Problem is, I can't find a windows way to do it on the net. The closest that I've come is a program called toporesize. This program will let you open files such as data.img from your nandroid backup. But you can't resize them because you get an error box that says this appears to not be an ext* filesystem. Check size file only to resize the file or use other tools. I'm assuming that means it wants you to check a button that says resize file only no resize2fs. In the one guide I found that talks about this app, it says do not check this box. So I'm assuming if you did, it would work and then when you flashed the file back to your phone, it would either not boot or the size would not be changed properly.
I also noted that there's a thread or two that has posted some custom sized data.img files for download. I would do this as a last resort but would prefer to resize my own data.img for a more precise choice of how large I want it.
The error mentions other tools. Are there other tools or programs for Windows users?
Does anybody have any insight on resizing the /data/data partition either by this method, by using parted/gparted, or any other method that works effectively?
I would avoid trying to alter the size of the partitions on your phone. That is how you end up with a brick. There are other ways including finding out which apps are taking up all of your space. 150 MB does not sound like a lot, but it is considering what is stored there.
Go into Manage Applications and click on the All tab. Then press the menu key and sort by size. Click on the apps near the top with anything higher than 3 or 4 MB. Look at the details in the storage section for each app. You will see a Data line item. If it is really high in proportion of the size of the Application, you should clear it. That will save you a lot of space.
In the case of the Mail app or other social networking apps like Facebook or Twitter, you can go into the settings and restrict how much data is stored on the phone. They can really eat up space by downloading a month of emails, etc ...
ihtfp69 said:
I would avoid trying to alter the size of the partitions on your phone. That is how you end up with a brick. There are other ways including finding out which apps are taking up all of your space. 150 MB does not sound like a lot, but it is considering what is stored there.
Go into Manage Applications and click on the All tab. Then press the menu key and sort by size. Click on the apps near the top with anything higher than 3 or 4 MB. Look at the details in the storage section for each app. You will see a Data line item. If it is really high in proportion of the size of the Application, you should clear it. That will save you a lot of space.
In the case of the Mail app or other social networking apps like Facebook or Twitter, you can go into the settings and restrict how much data is stored on the phone. They can really eat up space by downloading a month of emails, etc ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This request is meant with respect and NOT as a flame but I have to make this request so others don't follow and potentially change the thread into a debate on whether to resize or not resize the partition.
Please let's not start talking about whether this is a good idea or not nor if doing this can make our phone into a brick. Now that it's been said, those lurking and considering this for themselves can make up their own minds. But there are a lot of things talked about throughout XDA that can make your phone into a brick yet things are done in the name of making our devices better.
And yes. We can take action to reduce the amount of data that apps are taking up. To tell you the truth, I would do that even if I had a 1GB partition. I think always saving space when space can be saved is a good idea.
But just in principle, I and probably others want to reclaim that space on our phones that will never be used by anything. Maybe HTC allocated the space as it's allocated because some users won't use an SD card and will then use that space for their media and other miscellaneous stuff.
But once you have an SD card that's way bigger than the extra space on your phone, it becomes pointless to use that space on your phone for media. So I want it available for data.
So both sides of whether to do this or not have now been posed. I ask can we please get back to the topic of how to though I do thank you for your input.
That said, again, does anybody know how to resize your data partition whether by doing it live with parted or gparted or by editing the data.img file that nandroid via clockwork mod puts out? I would really appreciate it.
I tried making a nandroid backup of the phone through clockworkmod, sending the data.img file to my computer, using toporesize to resize it. And by the way, I was forced to check the resize file only no resize2fs button as not doing this generated an error. I then used md5sum to get an md5sum for the new data.img. I then inserted the md5sum in clockwork/nandroid's nandroid.md5 file (with a linux file compatable text editor). I then sent the entire backup back to the phone in a different clockworkmod/backup folder, used rom manager to restore, selected the new resized backup.
After the flashing was complete, I went into my phone only to find that the data partition still had the same amount free (give or take a few K). I wondered if that's because I had to shrink the system file? I was thinking before I started that it's probable that I would have to shrink another partition that had free space so I chose system. I attempted to repeat the above steps from the beginning this time with the plan of shrinking system.img.
No go. toporesize will not shrink it properly. Errors are reported in the process though when I reload it into toporesize, it looks like it has the size I want. Knowing it would probably fail, I tried to continue anyway. Even with the correct md5sum, nandroid won't even start the recovery of that set. You get a status bar for a second and then, the phone just reboots.
So for now, I'm at a loss but I know this can be done.
Whether using this method or another, does anybody know how to properly change the size of the data partition using WINDOWS?
Don't come crying when you brick it.
ihtfp69 said:
Don't come crying when you brick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no intentions of such. -1- I will quite likely never brick it as nandroid pretty much has me covered. But if I do, -2- I don't plan on having this phone forever. It's not new any more. There are already several models that are better than the droid incredible that I'm looking at. If I were to brick this phone, yay. Good excuse to buy a new phone. But, odds are, i'll never brick it and come November or December, I'll buy something else anyhow.
So please, this isn't about the risks, of course you can brick your phone trying this or many other things on XDA.
Does anyone know how to resize the data partition using any method that can be done with the help of a Windows machine?
This is a fundamental change to a very sensitive area you have
276 mb for the system rom and 748mb for user apps.Many rom devs seem to be straining to keep the rom below 200mb and it is amazingly easy to fill up 748 mb with little apps.
I would think if it were possible to do this it would have been done by the rom devs first thing. I would love to see a rom dev bump this to 500mb and 1024mb.
Chances are to re partition the partitions on the phones memory is not possible with out a hboot flash or something of a custom bootloader...
I find removing these help... Also i use handcent and gmail.app instead of the stock apps...
friendstream
peep
twitter
flicker
stocks app
facebook
748 mb? I only have 150 available in /data/data. How do you get 748?
enigmatl said:
748 mb? I only have 150 available in /data/data. How do you get 748?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
748mb is the size of the entire /data partition what us devs are doing with the new roms is symlinking things to the /system from /data i've managed to do it without symlinking but it bring the /system to its limits and thats usually not good to do
enigmatl said:
748 mb? I only have 150 available in /data/data. How do you get 748?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my /data/data i have 95.96 MB free
rom 35MB free
app space 212 MB free
internal 6.44GB free
Also /data/data is a different partition than /data so the 150 is not included as part of the 748.
Resize /data/data partition - Update?
Did you ever find a solution to resizing the HTC Incredible's partitions?
I too am fed up with having to constantly clear caches and uninstalled apps, just because the tiny 150MB partition fills up. It's been a problem since my wife and I bought our phones.
I expect it would have to be done by a custom bootloader, but thought I would check and see if you had any success.
If nandroid recreates the partition tables based on the sizes of the .img partition backups, then they could probably be resized by mounting the .IMG files directly under Linux and using Linux tools to resize each one - or - creating a new .img partition of the new size(s), mount the backups and copy everything over to the new one, unmount it and go from there?
Steve
Have you used the Ext4 mod created by Tiny and Jermaine151?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1623038
...and the following is the original thread which has the details of what exactly the mod does:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1315372
If I'm reading this (outdated) thread correctly, this mod is what you're looking for in regards to partitioning /data/data. The second link is provided in the OP of my first link.
SlimSnoopOS said:
Have you used the Ext4 mod created by Tiny and Jermaine151?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1623038
...and the following is the original thread which has the details of what exactly the mod does:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1315372
If I'm reading this (outdated) thread correctly, this mod is what you're looking for in regards to partitioning /data/data. The second link is provided in the OP of my first link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said ^^^^
Just do it.

[Q] Storage Space Running Out, Insufficient storage, my phone trying to screw me?

So...
I've had this problem for a while now, getting worse from day to day. I've asked about this before, but it wasnt solved.
Basically my phone is taking up data in the background. Probably updating, downloading something. Its so bad, that if i dont turn off data on the go, my 1.5GB are used in a day. Sync is turned off at all times
And another side effect of that is, that all that data probably has to be stored somewhere. So Im getting the storage space running out error. Kinda annoying cause I cant use gmail, Cant install any apps(insufficient storage available) etc.
I really have no idea where all that data is(after searching through all the folders for a while now)..
I'm on the latest AOKP Milestone(4.2)
Thanks!
There are a couple things I recommend doing in your position. First thing I would do would be to get an app that allows for more informative breakdown of what is using the storage. Something like diskusage should do the trick. This will allow you to see exactly where data is going, opposed to "misc" Perhaps this will show exactly what is taking up the storage, since you are rooted perhaps backups are the problem.
If that doesn't tell you what you want to know, or if you think an app may be using data behind the scenes then the next step I would do is to use some sort of data usage monitor. The built in one may suffice, settings > data usage. If not there may be better apps out there, although to be honest I have zero experience with those.
cupfulloflol said:
There are a couple things I recommend doing in your position. First thing I would do would be to get an app that allows for more informative breakdown of what is using the storage. Something like diskusage should do the trick. This will allow you to see exactly where data is going, opposed to "misc" Perhaps this will show exactly what is taking up the storage, since you are rooted perhaps backups are the problem.
If that doesn't tell you what you want to know, or if you think an app may be using data behind the scenes then the next step I would do is to use some sort of data usage monitor. The built in one may suffice, settings > data usage. If not there may be better apps out there, although to be honest I have zero experience with those.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uploaded a pic what diskusage says. When i hit media it only opens the file manager and directs me to sd storage
BTW this what Onavo says has been consuming data this month:
Market Downloader - 800MB mobile, 2.4Gb Wifi, all in background - and no, i didnt download anything from the play store on the go and hardly anything on wifi - havent updated my apps in weeks b/c of missing storage
Android OS + Others - 530MB mobile and a whooping 12GB on Wifi! All in Background too.
Timoooo said:
Uploaded a pic what diskusage says. When i hit media it only opens the file manager and directs me to sd storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like you have some nested 0 folders in that pic. Perhaps cleaning that up will clear up some space. Side note, if you haven't updated your custom recovery in a long time it may not be a bad time to look into that.
BTW this what Onavo says has been consuming data this month:
Market Downloader - 800MB mobile, 2.4Gb Wifi, all in background - and no, i didnt download anything from the play store on the go and hardly anything on wifi - havent updated my apps in weeks b/c of missing storage
Android OS + Others - 530MB mobile and a whooping 12GB on Wifi! All in Background too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I were in your situation, I would probably just get a clean start. This also would get rid of the nesting problem I mentioned above.
- I would make a backup of my current setup, probably just using Titanium Backup.
- Backup everything I want to keep from my phone to my PC, going through the 0 folders.
- Use fastboot to flash factory images, allowing it to wipe everything in the process. The .bat file should do this automatically.
- Use fastboot to install a recent custom recovery.
- Push the sdcard backup from my PC to my phone.
From here you have a couple options, root and reinstall Titanium backup and restore some of your apps (no system data) or go back into custom ROMs. You could flash AOKP again, or pick a different ROM.
A bit heavy handed, but I think that would be the least time consuming option considering the problem(s).
cupfulloflol said:
It looks like you have some nested 0 folders in that pic. Perhaps cleaning that up will clear up some space. Side note, if you haven't updated your custom recovery in a long time it may not be a bad time to look into that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I noticed that like half a year ago, had no idea why that happened. At one point I felt like everytime I flashed a new rom a new 0 folder appeared.. How does that happen?
cupfulloflol said:
If I were in your situation, I would probably just get a clean start. This also would get rid of the nesting problem I mentioned above.
- I would make a backup of my current setup, probably just using Titanium Backup.
- Backup everything I want to keep from my phone to my PC, going through the 0 folders.
- Use fastboot to flash factory images, allowing it to wipe everything in the process. The .bat file should do this automatically.
- Use fastboot to install a recent custom recovery.
- Push the sdcard backup from my PC to my phone.
From here you have a couple options, root and reinstall Titanium backup and restore some of your apps (no system data) or go back into custom ROMs. You could flash AOKP again, or pick a different ROM.
A bit heavy handed, but I think that would be the least time consuming option considering the problem(s).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually thinking about a clean start, googleing how to wipe everything and I read that thats kinda not possbile. But thanks for those steps, I'll do that when I have time!
Thanks
Timoooo said:
Yeah I noticed that like half a year ago, had no idea why that happened. At one point I felt like everytime I flashed a new rom a new 0 folder appeared.. How does that happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically when 4.2 came out, it brought along multi-user functionality. Custom recoveries at the time, when wiping and installing ended up creating the nesting problem. Recoveries then were updated, which doesn't create a bunch of /0 folders (one existing is correct). This was a super common problem about a year ago when 4.2 came to be. There were hundreds of threads about this problem, with more detailed info about what happens, why, and how to fix it. Wiping everything is one of the solutions, and since this isn't your only problem, this would probably be the recommended solution.
I was actually thinking about a clean start, googleing how to wipe everything and I read that thats kinda not possbile. But thanks for those steps, I'll do that when I have time!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure where you read that a wiping everything isn't possible, but whoever said that is all sorts of wrong. There are multiple ways to wipe things.
Just did what you said and it looks like everything worked! Everything is deleted, I have almost 13 gigs of free space, rooted my phone again and I'll probably install aokp or paranoid in a couple days.
No 0 Folders anymore and I'm sure as hell hoping that my data consumption will be fine now. I'll keep you updated on that in a few weeks again, but thanks for the help!
looks good thanks bud

[Q] memory problems on find 7

Hi there
Im having trouble with my find 7 recently-when Im trying to install an app its says the device has insufficient memory while the free space on the phone is 22gb. so right now I cant install anything
how can this be resolved?
thanks
Unfortunately, the free space available for media and other documents is not the same space available for installing apps in the system.
Basically, there are two different partitions: The System one (which the system can only use) and the User one (the one that you can use). Most phones have a unified partition, so that the system and the user partitions vary as needed.
Oppo thought it would be a good idea to set a limit on how big the system partition could be instead of using the much better unified layout, and this is where your problem lies: All the System space has been used up, and because of that limit, you're free space is inconsequential.
Oppo has promised a fix, but we'll see how long that takes.. In the meantime, check out LVM Repartitioning. It works really well!
BG64 said:
Unfortunately, the free space available for media and other documents is not the same space available for installing apps in the system.
Basically, there are two different partitions: The System one (which the system can only use) and the User one (the one that you can use). Most phones have a unified partition, so that the system and the user partitions vary as needed.
Oppo thought it would be a good idea to set a limit on how big the system partition could be instead of using the much better unified layout, and this is where your problem lies: All the System space has been used up, and because of that limit, you're free space is inconsequential.
Oppo has promised a fix, but we'll see how long that takes.. In the meantime, check out LVM Repartitioning. It works really well!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what is exactly the LVM Repartitioning and how do I solve the problem with it ?not so familiar with it
thanks again

Rooted A320FL, how to achieve permanently mounted adoptable storage?

Hello!
This is my first post in this forum, please be indulgent if I don't understand some stuff or abbreviations immediately.
I recently bought a Galaxy A3 2017 (SM-A320FL) to replace my old one with shattered screen and back cover. I tried the new Poco X3 for two weeks, but I wasn't satisfied with it since it was just wayyy too large for me, and also the phone speaker was unbearably loud (all people around me could follow the conversation on phone, even on lowest volume), which then led to the decision of sending it back and buying another used A3 2017 in good condition, as I was very satisfied with it, except of limited internal storage which continued to be an issue over months and years. And since the spare parts would have cost the same as the smartphone costs used at the moment, the decision was easy.
To avoid the single problem I had with the old phone, I wanted to root the phone right from the start so I could adopt the SD card as internal storage and/or change the folder some apps (especially WhatsApp) are storing their data and media in. Since the phone is factory reset and I have the other one which is still functioning, I don't have to take much care while trying things, which is great. I took yesterday evening until late night for that plan, and although a lot of threads and posts I read said that rooting the stock OS with latest update of Android 8 is not possible, I did it after some trial and error with flashing the custom recovery TWRP through Odin and then flashing SuperSU through TWRP. If a tutorial is needed, I'd happily write down how I did it, just ask.
But I still have a problem with adopting the storage. And as far as I understood, this is related to the storage encryption of Android/Samsung. Please explain if someone knows, I'd really like to understand the mechanisms that make all of this so laborious. I tried to mount the storage in TWRP when I started it first after flashing (it persists btw, as some people said it is gone and no recovery system can be found after the phone booted normally once, why?), but ran into the problem of "internal storage (0MB)". This was solved by wiping it, then I was able to mount the SD card as internal storage and the internal storage also was shown with a reasonable size in MB. I then started the phone which was obviously factory reset by the wiping. Unfortunately I couldn't see any results in the OS (does stock Android or file manager even show these changes in some way?) and also noticed the adopted storage was not anymore adopted when inspecting it in the TWRP recovery and again the internal storage was at 0MB. I then stumbled upon the app "Root Essentials" which is said to be able to adopt the storage, but needs a zip file which must be flashed by the recovery for that process. I tried it, but the flashing process does not work, as it can't find an installation of the app - my guess is, that this also is related to encrypted storage and the 0MB problem, how should the flash be able to look for something in encrypted space?
Soo, my problem now is, that I want to adopt the storage and don't know how to continue & where to begin. I also don't know if that app "Root Essentials" is any good, just read it at several places while googling so gave it a try. The phone is rooted with TWRP (0MB problem persisting) and stock OS now, and the adoptable storage per se is no must-have for me - if there is any other solution to migrate apps and more importantly their data to the SD card, please let me know, I'd be perfectly fine with that also.
Thank you!
Flo
Hey there Flo,
I am facing the same issues like you, always having to clear up space (e.g. Chrome cache) because the internal storage is not enough for the apps. And you cannot move many of the apps to the SD card, only their data. Last time I had to rermove Teams altogether because it was eating up 500+MB, and I couldn't afford it anymore as the free space dropped below 600MB.
Sooo, here are some basics I have learnt while looking for solutions.
Current custom ROMs are not an option for me as I use this phone for banking and production tasks, and I could not find any of them stable and issue-free enough to switch from the stock one.
The stock ROM is full of bloatware, especially Samsung stuff I do not need, and some others, like the Facebook app. However, you cannot extend internal storage with your SD card as Samsung does not allow this, and this is impossible with the stock ROM.
So I am stuck here, as I cannot leave the stock ROM, but I am constantly running out of space. Currently, I have rooted my device and installed TWRP, too, and I am planning to try one of the debloated stock ROMs to see if they can solve at least my problem with running out of free space on the internal storage.
In any case, what I can confirm is that you either have the stock ROM, and then you can only install apps on the internal storage, or if you want to extend your internal storage with the SD card, you'll have to choose one of the custom ROMs that allow this and wave goodbye to Knox and some other features.
I hope the above helps.
Hi!
Thanks for your detailed answer!
I didn't find a way to adopt the storage persistently, and I think at this point I'll just take your word that it won't be possible with the stock ROM. I knew that the stock ROM adopt storage option isn't able to be brought back by some adb shell commands as it was possible earlier (until 6.0 Marshmallow I think), but I thought that it maybe is possible by tricking the storage the OS sees with the mount in TWRP before the first start. Doesn't seem to work at all (for mostly unknown reasons, at least for me ).
And same for me, I don't know if the custom ROMs nowadays are better a lot, but doesn't sound like that as you described it. I flashed Resurrection Remix on my Galaxy S4 a few years ago, and although I liked the customizability and slimness, I too often ran into bugs and errors with it, which is why I abandoned the phone in the end.
However, I kind of found a fix I can live with on the SM-A320FL: I downloaded Link2SD from Playstore and also upgraded to the plus version, which is reasonably priced. This enables to also store app data on the SD card. I tried it with the 64GB SD card I had rolling around, partitioned it with MiniTool Partition Wizard following this guide to conform Link2SD requirements, and it worked perfectly. I also uninstalled all sorts of bloatware, and as far as i saw the shift to external storage of the apps I tried works fine. All data, including app, cache and app data is moved (and/or linked, not sure) to the ext2 partition on the SD card (which is shown to be a broken partition in Android storage settings btw, but that's fine). If any, only <1KB of file size per app remains in internal storage, which seems great!
I am currently waiting for my ordered 256GB SD card (U3, A2) to arrive next week, then I will do the full port from the old to the new A3 and I'll see how WhatsApp and Spotify behave being stored in external storage. Hopefully Link2SD is able to shift them, especially WhatsApp, since that was the main factor in cluttering the internal storage very fast and efficient.
If the Link2SD doesn't work for WhatsApp media, I'll give FolderMount a try, the direct mount then seems to work for many.
Since you mentioned it: What are the great features of Knox? The secure folder? Data encryption by screen lock? I can't remember using Knox features knowingly in the past three years. Is Knox not already blown by flashing a custom recovery?
Thanks for your help!
Flo
The internal storage data partition not mounting in TWRP is due to the partition being encypted when Android is booted, but also due to quota being enabled and latest version of TWRP for this phone (3.2.3-0 AFAIK) being unable to mount this. Fix for this is to flash a zip from Zackptg5 which disables both these options. See https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...y-a3-sm-a320f-fl-y-2017.3562302/post-79260952 for full details
I see that OrangeFox is available now (https://orangefox.download/device/a3y17lte), so maybe this is able to mount without these problems, I am going to flash this soon so I will let you know!
FYI I am using H-ROM by Astrako. Very close to stock (it is a port from the A7) and seems to work well. VoWiFI is working in this ROM which was essential for me.
lastsaskatchewanpirate said:
The internal storage data partition not mounting in TWRP is due to the partition being encypted when Android is booted, but also due to quota being enabled and latest version of TWRP for this phone (3.2.3-0 AFAIK) being unable to mount this. Fix for this is to flash a zip from Zackptg5 which disables both these options. See https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...y-a3-sm-a320f-fl-y-2017.3562302/post-79260952 for full details
I see that OrangeFox is available now (https://orangefox.download/device/a3y17lte), so maybe this is able to mount without these problems, I am going to flash this soon so I will let you know!
FYI I am using H-ROM by Astrako. Very close to stock (it is a port from the A7) and seems to work well. VoWiFI is working in this ROM which was essential for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did “orange fox” work?
King p1n said:
Did “orange fox” work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, with OrangeFox I didn't need to flash the zip file from Zackptg5 which removes quota. I didn't get on with the latest H-ROM 6.0 (too many niggles, particularly ambient light sensor doesn't work so no adaptive brightness; fingerprint scanner doesn't work in apps; video call doesn't work in WhatsApp), but OrangeFox worked really well, definitely recommend it. Sorry for not remembering to come back and update sooner!
lastsaskatchewanpirate said:
Yes, with OrangeFox I didn't need to flash the zip file from Zackptg5 which removes quota. I didn't get on with the latest H-ROM 6.0 (too many niggles, particularly ambient light sensor doesn't work so no adaptive brightness; fingerprint scanner doesn't work in apps; video call doesn't work in WhatsApp), but OrangeFox worked really well, definitely recommend it. Sorry for not remembering to come back and update sooner!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
Which rom do you use and recommend?
Or can orange fox be used with the stock rom?
Doing this on behalf on a friend who is struggling with storage issues, been years since I’ve touched android
King p1n said:
Thank you
Which rom do you use and recommend?
Or can orange fox be used with the stock rom?
Doing this on behalf on a friend who is struggling with storage issues, been years since I’ve touched android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently I use H-ROM 2.0 (https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...7-port-v2-0-pie-oneui-64-bits-treble.3940532/) which works well. Only two main niggles that I might change back to stock - video doesn't work in WhatsApp (but is OK in WhatsApp Business) and some VoWiFi calls have echo, but this might just be normal for VoWiFi, not had echo on normal cell network calls. Stock ROM is now available with Android 8 (Oreo) so when I have time I was intending to try that again, maybe with debloat to remove some of the stock apps.
I would recommend OrangeFox, and although I started with TWRP and flashed this over the top, I think you should be OK to just flash this straight from Odin. TWRP would only flash in old version of Odin, I would guess OrangeFox maybe would be the same. Flash in AP using older version Odin3 v3.12.10. Untick auto reboot, when complete power off with vol down + power, then force to recovery using volume up, home and power
lastsaskatchewanpirate said:
Currently I use H-ROM 2.0 (https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...7-port-v2-0-pie-oneui-64-bits-treble.3940532/) which works well. Only two main niggles that I might change back to stock - video doesn't work in WhatsApp (but is OK in WhatsApp Business) and some VoWiFi calls have echo, but this might just be normal for VoWiFi, not had echo on normal cell network calls. Stock ROM is now available with Android 8 (Oreo) so when I have time I was intending to try that again, maybe with debloat to remove some of the stock apps.
I would recommend OrangeFox, and although I started with TWRP and flashed this over the top, I think you should be OK to just flash this straight from Odin. TWRP would only flash in old version of Odin, I would guess OrangeFox maybe would be the same. Flash in AP using older version Odin3 v3.12.10. Untick auto reboot, when complete power off with vol down + power, then force to recovery using volume up, home and power
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just to clarify I could use Orange fox with stock rom and enable adopted storage? So I can use SD for apps when necessary.
I did get adopted storage working of sorts, but certain screens were missing from storage in the setting menu (I think Samsung didn't include or removed these as the phone was not intended to work with Adopted Storage), so it would crash when trying to perform certain actions. I can't actually remember now if you could move apps to the Adopted Storage using the standard system menus, it was so flakey that I stopped using that and switched to using Link2SD (which I had already used before so had a Plus license for) and this does exactly what I needed. These are the steps I used to get Link2SD working: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-1-6-link2sd.919326/post-82757807. I don't think you need the Plus version, but it doesn't cost much, removes the ads and lets you move a few more files. Hope that helps

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