Develop Bugs

[Universal] Changing bootsplash easy way!

Hi all,
here's how to create and prepare correct bootsplash image:
http://buzzdev.net
Here's how to flash it to your device very easy way (a little tool):
http://buzzdev.net
Version 1.1 uploaded
DOWNLOAD
Fixed the error below:
pdocwrite %1 -> %NEWSPLASH%
Added default splash, which will be flashed if no splash file found or wrong/nonexisting filename specified on comandline.
Added autoreboot.
Added some comments.
Your comments are welcome.
buzz

buzz_lightyear said:
Hi all,
here's how to create and prepare correct bootsplash image:
http://buzzdev.net
Here's how to flash it to your device very easy way (a little tool):
http://buzzdev.net
Your comments are welcome.
buzz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow wow wow , buzz you done great job again , thanks will try tonight

Excellent Work
Hey Buzz..Thanks..
Excellent work..u always make us proud of our devices..
Well i have a problem here..i did try everything mentioned on your website i.e created a new image new_splash.rsb and saved it in c:/ but when i ran UNI_splash it said the outcome was new file installed but when i restarted my device, i saw a white screen for 2 seconds or so and then the default imate splash image came up..am i doing something wrong. Here are the notes from splash file.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 8b 08 01 02 1b 21 10 66 03 05 05 71
CopyTFFSToFile(0x3f00000, 0x96000, original_splash.bin)
bin\rsb_header.bin
original_splash.bin
1 file(s) copied.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 8b 08 01 02 1b 21 10 66 03 05 05 71
ERROR: Unable to open file 0x3efffe4 - The system cannot find the file specified.
CopyFileToTFFS(0x3efffe4:0, 9601c, 00000000)
ERROR: Unable to open host/destination file - The system cannot find the file specified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please help!

Re: Excellent Work
Nishant said:
Hey Buzz..Thanks..
Excellent work..u always make us proud of our devices..
Well i have a problem here..i did try everything mentioned on your website i.e created a new image new_splash.rsb and saved it in c:/ but when i ran UNI_splash it said the outcome was new file installed but when i restarted my device, i saw a white screen for 2 seconds or so and then the default imate splash image came up..am i doing something wrong. Here are the notes from splash file.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 8b 08 01 02 1b 21 10 66 03 05 05 71
CopyTFFSToFile(0x3f00000, 0x96000, original_splash.bin)
bin\rsb_header.bin
original_splash.bin
1 file(s) copied.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 8b 08 01 02 1b 21 10 66 03 05 05 71
ERROR: Unable to open file 0x3efffe4 - The system cannot find the file specified.
CopyFileToTFFS(0x3efffe4:0, 9601c, 00000000)
ERROR: Unable to open host/destination file - The system cannot find the file specified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buzz , I got the same problem too.

Re: Excellent Work
mwang said:
Nishant said:
Hey Buzz..Thanks..
Excellent work..u always make us proud of our devices..
Well i have a problem here..i did try everything mentioned on your website i.e created a new image new_splash.rsb and saved it in c:/ but when i ran UNI_splash it said the outcome was new file installed but when i restarted my device, i saw a white screen for 2 seconds or so and then the default imate splash image came up..am i doing something wrong. Here are the notes from splash file.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 8b 08 01 02 1b 21 10 66 03 05 05 71
CopyTFFSToFile(0x3f00000, 0x96000, original_splash.bin)
bin\rsb_header.bin
original_splash.bin
1 file(s) copied.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 8b 08 01 02 1b 21 10 66 03 05 05 71
ERROR: Unable to open file 0x3efffe4 - The system cannot find the file specified.
CopyFileToTFFS(0x3efffe4:0, 9601c, 00000000)
ERROR: Unable to open host/destination file - The system cannot find the file specified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buzz , I got the same problem too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should modfiy the UNI_splash.bat
"bin\pdocwrite.exe %1 0x3efffe4 0x9601c >> Splash.log"
to
"bin\pdocwrite.exe c:\new_splash.rsb 0x3efffe4 0x9601c >> Splash.log"
it's my splash.log
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 c8 2e 02 04 08 32 0e bb 18 04 05 17
CopyTFFSToFile(0x3f00000, 0x96000, original_splash.bin)
bin\rsb_header.bin
original_splash.bin
已复制 1 个文件。
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 c8 2e 02 04 08 32 0e bb 18 04 05 17
CopyFileToTFFS(c:\new_splash.rsb:0, 3efffe4, 0009601c)

Hurray
Thanks wlinsong
Hurray! I did it..Thanks buzz for excellent peice of sofware...I just love it..
Nish

This is real nice it worked for me as well...
Here is the one I am using now:

And this could also be nice:

Re: Excellent Work
wlinsong said:
you should modfiy the UNI_splash.bat
"bin\pdocwrite.exe %1 0x3efffe4 0x9601c >> Splash.log"
to
"bin\pdocwrite.exe c:\new_splash.rsb 0x3efffe4 0x9601c >> Splash.log"
it's my splash.log
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 c8 2e 02 04 08 32 0e bb 18 04 05 17
CopyTFFSToFile(0x3f00000, 0x96000, original_splash.bin)
bin\rsb_header.bin
original_splash.bin
已复制 1 个文件。
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 c8 2e 02 04 08 32 0e bb 18 04 05 17
CopyFileToTFFS(c:\new_splash.rsb:0, 3efffe4, 0009601c)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Wlinsong , now I had O2 Exec with Dopod CHT ROM and my gf picture in my bootscreen , its cool.
Wlinsong do you dump Dopod HK rom yet ?

Thanks and Thanks
Two advantages...
1) as obvious....new splash
2) original splash images are also saved...
Very Good tool Indeed

This sounds like a great tool. Thanks buzz!
I have a question though: is it necessary to do a hard reset, or should a soft reset work? Only I have run the program and it said it worked and yet I still have the old O2 splash screen...

These are great news!! :lol:
I've been searching for such a tool maaany weeks!
Will try it soon. Thank you in advance!

GOT IT WORKING!
Sorry about that. I forgot to put the ".rsb" on the filename so it couldn't find the new ROM image. Now I have fixed it and it works beautifully!

hi guys,
i'm glad, that you like it )))
however, I cannot get the problem, why it was necessary to modify the batch.
you should supply two parameters.
first %1 is the new splash.
second %2 is backup filename.
no spaces, no special characters.
if you don't give it parameters, it is looking for
c:\new_splash.rsb
and saving old splash as
c:\backup_splash.rsb
please can anyone clear it for me?
It was really too late yesterday, maybe I did some mistake in that script )
i'm about to write a proper app in c++ later...
thanx
buzz

I fixed the .bat file by changing the %1 variable used in the pdocwrite statement to %NEWSPLASH% - it worked fine then. I presume this is because %1 and %2 are command line variables that get cleared at the next command (pdocread).

I have done the above and it works, except I get for a very brief period a white blank screen before the new splash image loads. I do not recall this behavious with the prior original splash image.
Does everybody else have the same behaviour?
here is my log file:
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 2d 1a 01 02 22 32 0a c6 18 09 05 00
CopyTFFSToFile(0x3f00000, 0x96000, original_splash.bin)
bin\rsb_header.bin
original_splash.bin
1 file(s) copied.
3 partitions, 1 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 2d 1a 01 02 22 32 0a c6 18 09 05 00
CopyFileToTFFS(c:\new_splash.rsb:0, 3efffe4, 0009601c)

Yes, I get this, but its so brief I'm not worried about it personally. Not even sure whether it didn't do it before either!

Version 1.1 uploaded
DOWNLOAD
Fixed the error below:
pdocwrite %1 -> %NEWSPLASH%
Added default splash, which will be flashed if no splash file found or wrong/nonexisting filename specified on comandline.
Added autoreboot.
Added some comments.
THANX for comments
buzz

alfazulu said:
I have done the above and it works, except I get for a very brief period a white blank screen before the new splash image loads. I do not recall this behavious with the prior original splash image.
Does everybody else have the same behaviour?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is normal. You probably didn't notice that behaviour.
buzz

Works Great!
Another Great Work Buzz!
Thanks

Samsung i900 Omnia rom backup help

Hi to all the Samsung experts, I currently have a Samsung i900 and am looking for a way to extract my rom and create a flashable format. I have used pdocread to extract 3 .raw files but am not sure how to proceed from here. Can anyone advise? Thanks.

Hoping that the i780 istruction can be used for the omnia, the relevant posts are here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2237280&postcount=10
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=393490

Thanks, I have read those threads, problem is you apparently need a flashable .bin to start with which in this case I do not so am looking for a way to use the .raw files only. Do you know if that is possible?

efjay said:
Thanks, I have read those threads, problem is you apparently need a flashable .bin to start with which in this case I do not so am looking for a way to use the .raw files only. Do you know if that is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you don't need the bins, you can start from the raw files.
Just look at the famusc kitchen and read the included instructions.

Ok here is a way to dump the nb file and then dump its contents.I have already done that, including xip
Use itsutils and following command in dos window :
psdread -1 0 0xDISKSIZE os.nb
Then use imgfs tools or tazio tools to dump, and further processing.
We need now how to flash back the custom os.nb to omnia
still searching for sd card flashing combinations

@The Solutor: I have read the famusc kitchen docs and it explicity states you need an existing .bin PDA rom. However there are a few commands in there that may be worth checking out.
@hdubli: I will try the command you suggested later today. What are the tazio tools? And dont Samsung phones use .bin files to flash rather than .nb?

You don't need the bin.
Here step by step:
- Downlad and install the kitchen
- Copy Part02.raw into the kitchen folder
- Open cmd and type: ImgfsToDump Part02.raw (This will create dump folder)
- Execute RecreateBin.exe
You got your bin file!!!!

mievalt said:
You don't need the bin.
Here step by step:
- Downlad and install the kitchen
- Copy Part02.raw into the kitchen folder
- Open cmd and type: ImgfsToDump Part02.raw (This will create dump folder)
- Execute RecreateBin.exe
You got your bin file!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean RecreateBin.bat? There is no RecreateBin.exe and looking at the contents of the .bat file I dont think it will work as it makes reference to i780 files which I dont have and most likely wont work with the Omnia.
imgfsfromdump imgfs_raw_data.bin new_imgfs.bin
del imgfs_raw_data.bin
ren new_imgfs.bin imgfs_raw_data.bin
make_imgfs i780.nb0.payload.body -nosplit
merge i780.nb0.payload.header i780.nb0.payload.body i780.nb0.payload
nbmerge -data 2048 -extra 8 i780.nb0 -conservative

yes it is the .bat file sorry.
I780 should just be name of the files that you get at the end...
I can't say if it works you just have to give it a try...
But that would be the way we do it with our i780 roms...
Try and report. You should get a i780.bin file.... otherwise it should stop with an error.

I have a Samsung Omnia German version and would like to get the english version. Anybody know where to find the WWE ROM and CID unlock or what i need to install it?

any luck
Any luck on cooking a samsung i900 Rom

JesperRas said:
I have a Samsung Omnia German version and would like to get the english version. Anybody know where to find the WWE ROM and CID unlock or what i need to install it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does ur version read?
My one read i900XXHE4. I am also looking for way to upgrade to i900DXHG4

anyone manage to extract the rom?
or is there anyway i could extract those dll in the roms?
would like to try reverse it see if can extract the data for the accelerometer

Link
Here is the Link
For the update

any body can backup the rom G2 and previous and let us flash it? i sooo want the old rom back.. G4 fully sucked with too many issues on it..

What is the build info on G4?
I can dump the rom but you will have my serial #

silencer22 said:
anyone manage to extract the rom?
or is there anyway i could extract those dll in the roms?
would like to try reverse it see if can extract the data for the accelerometer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it looks like a .bin file and oddly enough executing it changed all my Atom .nb0 files to 'open with' USDL4...
Do kitchen tools exist or Perhaps somebody could be commisioned to make tools for us, I'd be up for that!

whats the go on creating a flashable rom? i tried to flash chinese G8 rom and i regretted it.. now i cant flash it back to WWE G4 rom. =( anyone here able to make flashable rom or F8 or G2 WWE roms? pls pls pls..

I tried to back up my i900 Omnia ROM and get this:
C:\12>pdocread -l
128.46M (0x8076000) DSK1:
| 1.47M (0x179000) Part00
| 2.58M (0x295800) Part01
| 124.40M (0x7c66800) Part02
90.44M (0x5a70000) DSK2:
| 90.43M (0x5a6f000) Part00
0.00 (0x0) DSK5:
| 0.00 (0x0) PART00
15.00G (0x3c0000000) DSK3:
| 15.00G (0x3bffffc00) Part00
STRG handles:
handle 6698a06e 15.00G (0x3bffffc00)
handle a698a026
handle c6cc2472 90.43M (0x5a6f000)
handle 06e0479a124.40M (0x7c66800)
handle 26e04776 2.58M (0x295800)
handle 26e0472e 1.47M (0x179000)
disk 6698a06e
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
disk a698a026
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
disk c6cc2472
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
disk 06e0479a
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
disk 26e04776
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
disk 26e0472e
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
C:\12>psdread -1 0 0xDISKSIZE os.nb
remote disk 1 has 65772 sectors of 2048 bytes - 128.46Mbyte
SerialNr: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
CopySDCardToFile(remote, 1, 0x0, 0xd, os.nb)
ERROR: ITReadSDCard - The parameter is incorrect.
C:\12>pdocread -w -d FLASHDR -p Part00 0 0x179000 Part00.raw
ERROR: ITTFFSGetInfo - The device is not ready for use.
WARNING: using default 512 bytes for sectorsize
CopyTFFSToFile(0x0, 0x179000, Part00.raw)
ERROR: ITReadDisk: outbuf==NULL
- The device is not ready for use.
Any thoughts?

I am improving :
C:\12>psdread -1 0 0x8076000 i900XHHG4.nb
remote disk 1 has 65772 sectors of 2048 bytes - 128.46Mbyt
SerialNr: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
CopySDCardToFile(remote, 1, 0x0, 0x8076000, i900XHHG4.nb)
but I am waiting more than 30 min and no activity. How long does it take to copy 128MB?

WP7 Porting/Tool Development

HTC WP7 NBH Dump/Rebuild:
NBHImageTool
flash.store.bin Dump/Rebuild (dumped as os.nb in NBHImageTool):
(tool creation pending)
IMGFS Dump:
Combine xidump with the attached cecompr_nt.dll supporting XPH
IMGFS Build:
Combine imgfsfromdump with the attached cecompr_nt.dll supporting XPH
XIP/ULDR Dump:
dumprom works well for this.
XIP/ULDR Build:
(tool creation pending)
I'll be posting updates in my twitter, which you can reach by clicking the image in my signature below.

That's great
Thanks

awesome, best of luck;]

Thank for this

thanks. let us know if you need something...
i'm sure we can get more donations if needed...

Good luck in your attempt my friend.
A small appreciation from my side
Transaction ID: 3HV21374WY1903845

Relocation Module SYS/Dump:
Creating tools...
Command Dump IMGFS:
Code:
xidump imgfs.bin
Create Packages from Dump:
Combine Packagebuilder with the attached cecompr_nt.dll supporting XPH
Another method Dump XIP:
XIPPort - Bepe's
Region PagePool:
during the detection..
Generation File imageinfo.txt:
Command:
Code:
iitp [ -p physfirst ]
Download: IITP - imageinfo.txt producer.
XPR to XPH Compression:
Open the file os.nb.payload in HEX Editor. Find this Lines:
Code:
F8 AC 2C 9D E3 D4 2B 4D BD 30 91 6E D8 4F 31 DC ř¬,ťăÔ+M˝0‘nŘO1Ü
01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 34 00 00 00 ............4...
08 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 10 00 00 58 50 52 00 ............XPR.
And change to:
Code:
F8 AC 2C 9D E3 D4 2B 4D BD 30 91 6E D8 4F 31 DC ř¬,ťăÔ+M˝0‘nŘO1Ü
01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 34 00 00 00 ............4...
08 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 10 00 00 58 50 52 00 ............XPH.
Save this file. Get this library cecompr_nt.dll (attached in first post), then insert to TOOLS folder from your Kitchen ROM.
Download cecompr.dll (attached) and overwrite it in your XIP.
Useful module to compress XPH:

You're doing great work,
I hope you'll succeed.
Good luck

lets keep this on track, roms will be developed as they can be, asking for specific hardware won;t make any difference and only take the threads off track.
this is a nice clean thread for the real WP7 work going on, looks like we have sorted the compression issue,
looking forward to what Da_G finds with the JTAG on the HD2.

chrispilot2293 said:
why do you say that about Topaz how do you know that we wont get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lots of posts in the other threads on this topic. There's lots of reasons but the main one is that non-Cortex A8 (ie Snapdragon) devices are not capable of executing code compiled for the ARMv7 instruction set. WP7 is compiled under ARMv7. To recompile for ARMv4/5/6 would require the original source code to WP7 which there's practically no chance of getting. Even IF that somehow leaked out, it would still run so poorly that it would be unuseable.

good luck da_g. endevours from indian in australia

What is difference between XPR and XPH? More importantly, I'd love to know how to rebuild cecompr_nt.
Does your cecompr_nt_xpr_xph.dll still support lzh?
If XIP/ULDR can be dumped w/ existing tools, what prevents existing tools being used for reconstruction?

gguruusa said:
What is difference between XPR and XPH? More importantly, I'd love to know how to rebuild cecompr_nt.
Does your cecompr_nt_xpr_xph.dll still support lzh?
If XIP/ULDR can be dumped w/ existing tools, what prevents existing tools being used for reconstruction?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.... only XPR/XPH

Just made my donation. Just for the effort your giving. Thanks.

Just sent you a donation, looking forward to rocking my HD2 with Win7! Thanks man!

didn't the leaked spec sheet of wm7 state armv6 and above?
am i just behind the times
thanks for everyones work

Da_G said:
HTC WP7 NBH Dump/Rebuild:
NBHImageTool
flash.store.bin Dump/Rebuild (dumped as os.nb in NBHImageTool):
(tool creation pending)
IMGFS Dump:
Combine xidump with the attached cecompr_nt.dll supporting XPH
IMGFS Build:
Combine imgfsfromdump with the attached cecompr_nt.dll supporting XPH
XIP/ULDR Dump:
dumprom works well for this.
XIP/ULDR Build:
(tool creation pending)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazing work Da_G! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

zole2112 said:
Just sent you a donation, looking forward to rocking my HD2 with Win7! Thanks man!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not certain that it will work, dont get your hopes up or your kickers in a twist if it comes do nothing.
Silently hoping it does however but we shall have to wait and see.

ID transazione: 6NA49355LX5868833
A small gift for your great work

Please let us Know if Donations can help, I would invest $100 or even more so that the HD2 sees the Light.
and Please guys, we invested and accepted donations to buy an HD2 Plus the Trace32 App, so let's focus on developing Win 7 for HD2 currently, later, I think that other devices can reap the benifits too.
Best of Luck to you Da_G
Will

[ASK] Link2SD for galaxy W

I wanna ask,
is galaxy w need link2sd installed?
what setting that would be good if installing link2sd?

Actually it depends on how much applications you want being installed on your phone but yes it worths installing it for at least 5 reasons:
Being able to mount to your computer your SD cards using the debug mode without stopping the applications that you should have moved to the SD card using the native App2SD.
Not being limited by the size of the /data partition because of the *.dex files generated for the dalvik cache.
You can move any kind of applications even those that are not movable to SD!
Link2SD includes free utilities like conversion of system application to user application (and vice versa) that you'll have to pay for with other solutions like Titanium Backup.
Avoiding slow downs because of the loop mounts created (Just run the "mount" command from an adb shell or terminal and you'll see).
Indeed I noticed a global slow down of my phone after I've started getting more and more applications being installed and beside I'm using some other tool to avoid push services and other unwanted background processes to be started by some applications, I've come to the conclusion that too many loop mounts because of the native App2SD is not good either (I suspect it takes over the RAM).
Actually the Link2SD FAQ will give you all the good reasons why to use it:
http://www.link2sd.info/faq
Recommendations:
I'd like to also share share my experience (I may move the following to another thread):
Recommend microSD cards:
Regarding the microSD card you can use even a 32 GB class 10.
The ones I recommend (32 GB class 10) are Samsung, SanDisk, Transcend (Those Transcend ones made in Korea are logically made by Samsung, the ones made in China are made by SanDisk).
Partitionning and formatting:
The tough part is the partitioning and formatting.
Out of the box, all the microSD cards are partitioned and formatted so that they are aligned with their erase block size (it can be 8 MiB, 12 MiB...)
Thus you'll have to consult so you'll know the erase block size:
the Linaro flash card survey:
https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/Kernel/Projects/FlashCardSurvey
the corresponding flashbench mailing list
http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/flashbench-results
You can also use the flashbench tool to figure it out.
The problem is that you cannot create or resize the FAT32 partition using Windows (even with minitool partition or paragon partition manager), nor with Linux by using gparted or other because you won't get your partitions aligned with the erase blocks and thus you'll get bad performances and faster wearing of your card.
Backup:
Before formatting do a raw backup of the first 16 MiB (for the partitions table and the FAT32 description) using busybox dd on the phone itself or dd on Linux.
For example on the phone:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk1 of=/sdcard/mmcblk1-orig-1st-16MiB.img bs=4M count=4
Also you must keep using the default cluster size of 32 kiB because of optimization done at the level of Android and because smaller cluster size will mean more memory taken from the RAM - Actually the FAT is loaded in the RAM, so you must keep it not too big.
Formulas:
Then decide how much you need for the Link2SD partition - You can start with 1 GiB or so, personally I use about 2 GiB. You can check how much space is taken by the asec images to decide...
Now here comes some math (The formulas are to be used in LibreOffice Calc):
Partitioning:
We need to define the new size for the FAT32 partition at the beginning so it is aligned with the erase block size and so that the File Allocation Tables are located between the special offsets (especially true with SanDisk - for example the FAT must be located between the offsets at 4 MiB and 12 MiB, that's why most SD card have 4 MiB unpartitioned free space at the beginning).
Code:
new_fat32_partition_size = MROUND(whole_microsd_size - wanted_link2sd_partition_size + fat32_start_offset ; erase_block_size) - fat32_start_offset
With:
whole_microsd_size: The actual total size of the card - You can get it using fdisk.
wanted_link2sd_partition_size: The size you'd like for the Link2SD partition.
fat32_start_offset: The offset where the 1st FAT32 partition starts.
erase_block_size: The erase block size.
So for example for a SanDisk microSDHC 32 GB Class 10, we have an erase block size of 12 MiB (actually 3 times 4 MiB) and a FAT description that has to start at the offset at 4 MiB and then next erase block that starts at the offset at 12 MiB.
Therefore you'll have:
Code:
new_fat32_partition_size = MROUND(30,101,504 kiB - 1,061,376 kiB + 4,194,304 kiB ; erase_block_size) - 12 582 912 kiB = 30,101,504 kiB
Therefore using fdisk you should get something like the following when printing the partitions (p) - Don't forget to disable the DOS compatibility flag and use the sector as the unit:
Code:
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 31.9 GB, 31914983424 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 973968 cylinders, total 62333952 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9a064f9d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 8192 60211199 30101504 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 60211200 62333951 1061376 83 Linux
FAT32 formatting:
In order to use mkdosfs 3.0.9 or later with the right amount of reserved sectors so the root directory and data will start exactly at the next erase block offset.
The idea is to make so that the FATs ends exactly before that offset, but for that we need to know the size of one FAT.
Here is the formula based on mkdosfs source code, to calculate that needed number of reserved sectors:
Code:
total_number_of_sectors = total_number_of_blocks * block_size / sector_size
number_of_sectors_for_fats_and_data = total_number_of_sectors - MROUND(default_number_of_reserved_sectors ; cluster_size)
number_of_clusters = (number_of_sectors_for_fats_and_data * sector_size + number_of_fats * 8) / (cluster_size * sector_size + number_of_fats * 4)
fat_size = MROUND(CEILING((number_of_clusters + 2) * 4 / sector_size ; 1) ; cluster_size)
root_directory_offset = default_number_of_reserved_sectors + number_of_fats * fat_size
aligned_root_directory_offset = MROUND(root_directory_offset ; erase_block_size * 1024^2 / sector_size)
number_of_reserved_sectors = aligned_root_directory_offset - root_directory_offset + default_number_of_reserved_sectors
With:
sector_size: 512 bytes (Standard value)
block_size: 1,024 bytes (Standard value)
total_number_of_blocks: new_fat32_partition_size in kiB
default_number_of_reserved_sectors: 64 (can be 32)
cluster_size: 64 sectors (i.e. 32 kiB)
number_of_fats: 2 (Standard value)
So for example for that same card you'll get:
Code:
total_number_of_sectors = 60,203,008
number_of_reserved_sectors = 1,664
Therefore here is the command to format the FAT32 partition:
Code:
$> sudo mkdosfs -F 32 -s 64 -R 1664 -n EXTERNAL_SD -v /dev/mmcblk0p1
mkdosfs 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 has 4 heads and 16 sectors per track,
logical sector size is 512,
using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 60203008 sectors;
file system has 2 32-bit FATs and 64 sectors per cluster.
FAT size is 7360 sectors, and provides 940416 clusters.
There are 1664 reserved sectors.
Volume ID is 8aa89e36, volume label EXTERNAL_SD.
You can see that each FAT takes less than 3.6 MiB, so with 2 FATs and the reserved sector the FAT description takes less than 8 MiB.
You can then check using hexdump if indeed the root directory starts at the the 12 MiB offset (knowing that the partition begin at the 4 MiB offset - indeed 12 = 4 + 8).
For that let's read the first 13 MiB of the card:
Code:
$> sudo hd -n $[13*1024*1024] /dev/mmcblk0
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 82 |................|
000001c0 03 00 0c f8 95 a3 00 20 00 00 00 a0 96 03 00 f8 |....... ........|
000001d0 96 a3 83 1b f3 28 00 c0 96 03 00 64 20 00 00 00 |.....(.....d ...|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00400000 eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73 66 73 00 00 02 40 80 06 |[email protected]|
00400010 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 10 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400020 00 a0 96 03 c0 1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 |................|
00400030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400040 00 00 29 e5 a5 dc 46 45 58 54 45 52 4e 41 4c 5f |..)...FEXTERNAL_|
00400050 53 44 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 0e 1f be 77 7c ac |SDFAT32 ...w|.|
00400060 22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 5e eb f0 32 |".t.V.......^..2|
00400070 e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 6e |.......This is n|
00400080 6f 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 64 69 |ot a bootable di|
00400090 73 6b 2e 20 20 50 6c 65 61 73 65 20 69 6e 73 65 |sk. Please inse|
004000a0 72 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 66 6c |rt a bootable fl|
004000b0 6f 70 70 79 20 61 6e 64 0d 0a 70 72 65 73 73 20 |oppy and..press |
004000c0 61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 74 72 79 20 61 |any key to try a|
004000d0 67 61 69 6e 20 2e 2e 2e 20 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 |gain ... .......|
004000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
004001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00400200 52 52 61 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |RRaA............|
00400210 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
004003e0 00 00 00 00 72 72 41 61 7e 59 0e 00 03 00 00 00 |....rrAa~Y......|
004003f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00400400 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00400c00 eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73 66 73 00 00 02 40 80 06 |[email protected]|
00400c10 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 10 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400c20 00 a0 96 03 c0 1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 |................|
00400c30 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400c40 00 00 29 e5 a5 dc 46 45 58 54 45 52 4e 41 4c 5f |..)...FEXTERNAL_|
00400c50 53 44 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 0e 1f be 77 7c ac |SDFAT32 ...w|.|
00400c60 22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 5e eb f0 32 |".t.V.......^..2|
00400c70 e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 6e |.......This is n|
00400c80 6f 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 64 69 |ot a bootable di|
00400c90 73 6b 2e 20 20 50 6c 65 61 73 65 20 69 6e 73 65 |sk. Please inse|
00400ca0 72 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 66 6c |rt a bootable fl|
00400cb0 6f 70 70 79 20 61 6e 64 0d 0a 70 72 65 73 73 20 |oppy and..press |
00400cc0 61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 74 72 79 20 61 |any key to try a|
00400cd0 67 61 69 6e 20 2e 2e 2e 20 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 |gain ... .......|
00400ce0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00400df0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00400e00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
004d0000 f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f |................|
004d0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00868000 f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f |................|
00868010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00c00000 45 58 54 45 52 4e 41 4c 5f 53 44 08 00 00 52 b3 |EXTERNAL_SD...R.|
We can see that indeed the root partition starts at the offset 0x00c00000 which is 12 MiB!
Also note that 0x00400000 is the 4 MiB offset, the beginning of the FAT32 partition...
You can try the hexdump against the backup you did and you'll see that the factory formatting is also with a number of reserved sector so that the root directory is aligned. For example I've found the root directory at the 12 MiB offset (of course) and for that they use 1,170 reserved sector (I've decoded the hexdump to get that value) which matches the formula. They also set 8,192 hidden sectors - that's more for compatibility with some cameras, we don't care here...
Link2SD formatting:
I use ext4 for that partition, I've got inspiration from http://blogofterje.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/optimizing-fs-on-sd-card/, however I'm not sure if indeed using the stride and the stripe-width options is really needed:
Code:
[FONT=Courier New]$ sudo mkfs.ext4 -O ^has_journal -E stride=4,stripe-width=512 -b 4096 -L Link2SD /dev/mmcblk0p2
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Filesystem label=Link2SD
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=4 blocks, Stripe width=512 blocks
66384 inodes, 265344 blocks
13267 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=272629760
9 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7376 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 30 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.[/FONT]
Anyway I consider the Link2SD partition is going to be used much more for read than write and we need the same file system that is used on the other partitions of the phone (i.e. ext4).
I hope it's not too complicated and that will help
Some other references:
http://android.bytearrays.com/android/align-your-sdcard-fat-and-ext-partition/
http://www.bradfordembedded.com/2011/12/format-an-sd-card-with-8-mib-aligned-partitions/
http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=4993.0
http://www.patriotmemory.com/forums...ite-speed-by-aligning-FAT32&p=41521#post41521
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1224408

What a long and completed answer
I'll read and try to understand the way one-by-one. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk 2

v0rt3x said:
Actually it depends on how much applications you want being installed on your phone but yes it worths installing it for at least 5 reasons:
Being able to mount to your computer your SD cards using the debug mode without stopping the applications that you should have moved to the SD card using the native App2SD.
Not being limited by the size of the /data partition because of the *.dex files generated for the dalvik cache.
You can move any kind of applications even those that are not movable to SD!
Link2SD includes free utilities like conversion of system application to user application (and vice versa) that you'll have to pay for with other solutions like Titanium Backup.
Avoiding slow downs because of the loop mounts created (Just run the "mount" command from an adb shell or terminal and you'll see).
Indeed I noticed a global slow down of my phone after I've started getting more and more applications being installed and beside I'm using some other tool to avoid push services and other unwanted background processes to be started by some applications, I've come to the conclusion that too many loop mounts because of the native App2SD is not good either (I suspect it takes over the RAM).
Actually the Link2SD FAQ will give you all the good reasons why to use it:
http://www.link2sd.info/faq
Recommendations:
I'd like to also share share my experience (I may move the following to another thread):
Recommend microSD cards:
Regarding the microSD card you can use even a 32 GB class 10.
The ones I recommend (32 GB class 10) are Samsung, SanDisk, Transcend (Those Transcend ones made in Korea are logically made by Samsung, the ones made in China are made by SanDisk).
Partitionning and formatting:
The tough part is the partitioning and formatting.
Out of the box, all the microSD cards are partitioned and formatted so that they are aligned with their erase block size (it can be 8 MiB, 12 MiB...)
Thus you'll have to consult so you'll know the erase block size:
the Linaro flash card survey:
https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/Kernel/Projects/FlashCardSurvey
the corresponding flashbench mailing list
http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/flashbench-results
You can also use the flashbench tool to figure it out.
The problem is that you cannot create or resize the FAT32 partition using Windows (even with minitool partition or paragon partition manager), nor with Linux by using gparted or other because you won't get your partitions aligned with the erase blocks and thus you'll get bad performances and faster wearing of your card.
Backup:
Before formatting do a raw backup of the first 16 MiB (for the partitions table and the FAT32 description) using busybox dd on the phone itself or dd on Linux.
For example on the phone:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk1 of=/sdcard/mmcblk1-orig-1st-16MiB.img bs=4M count=4
Also you must keep using the default cluster size of 32 kiB because of optimization done at the level of Android and because smaller cluster size will mean more memory taken from the RAM - Actually the FAT is loaded in the RAM, so you must keep it not too big.
Formulas:
Then decide how much you need for the Link2SD partition - You can start with 1 GiB or so, personally I use about 2 GiB. You can check how much space is taken by the asec images to decide...
Now here comes some math (The formulas are to be used in LibreOffice Calc):
Partitioning:
We need to define the new size for the FAT32 partition at the beginning so it is aligned with the erase block size and so that the File Allocation Tables are located between the special offsets (especially true with SanDisk - for example the FAT must be located between the offsets at 4 MiB and 12 MiB, that's why most SD card have 4 MiB unpartitioned free space at the beginning).
Code:
new_fat32_partition_size = MROUND(whole_microsd_size - wanted_link2sd_partition_size + fat32_start_offset ; erase_block_size) - fat32_start_offset
With:
whole_microsd_size: The actual total size of the card - You can get it using fdisk.
wanted_link2sd_partition_size: The size you'd like for the Link2SD partition.
fat32_start_offset: The offset where the 1st FAT32 partition starts.
erase_block_size: The erase block size.
So for example for a SanDisk microSDHC 32 GB Class 10, we have an erase block size of 12 MiB (actually 3 times 4 MiB) and a FAT description that has to start at the offset at 4 MiB and then next erase block that starts at the offset at 12 MiB.
Therefore you'll have:
Code:
new_fat32_partition_size = MROUND(30,101,504 kiB - 1,061,376 kiB + 4,194,304 kiB ; erase_block_size) - 12 582 912 kiB = 30,101,504 kiB
Therefore using fdisk you should get something like the following when printing the partitions (p) - Don't forget to disable the DOS compatibility flag and use the sector as the unit:
Code:
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 31.9 GB, 31914983424 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 973968 cylinders, total 62333952 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9a064f9d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 8192 60211199 30101504 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 60211200 62333951 1061376 83 Linux
FAT32 formatting:
In order to use mkdosfs 3.0.9 or later with the right amount of reserved sectors so the root directory and data will start exactly at the next erase block offset.
The idea is to make so that the FATs ends exactly before that offset, but for that we need to know the size of one FAT.
Here is the formula based on mkdosfs source code, to calculate that needed number of reserved sectors:
Code:
total_number_of_sectors = total_number_of_blocks * block_size / sector_size
number_of_sectors_for_fats_and_data = total_number_of_sectors - MROUND(default_number_of_reserved_sectors ; cluster_size)
number_of_clusters = (number_of_sectors_for_fats_and_data * sector_size + number_of_fats * 8) / (cluster_size * sector_size + number_of_fats * 4)
fat_size = MROUND(CEILING((number_of_clusters + 2) * 4 / sector_size ; 1) ; cluster_size)
root_directory_offset = default_number_of_reserved_sectors + number_of_fats * fat_size
aligned_root_directory_offset = MROUND(root_directory_offset ; erase_block_size * 1024^2 / sector_size)
number_of_reserved_sectors = aligned_root_directory_offset - root_directory_offset + default_number_of_reserved_sectors
With:
sector_size: 512 bytes (Standard value)
block_size: 1,024 bytes (Standard value)
total_number_of_blocks: new_fat32_partition_size in kiB
default_number_of_reserved_sectors: 64 (can be 32)
cluster_size: 64 sectors (i.e. 32 kiB)
number_of_fats: 2 (Standard value)
So for example for that same card you'll get:
Code:
total_number_of_sectors = 60,203,008
number_of_reserved_sectors = 1,664
Therefore here is the command to format the FAT32 partition:
Code:
$> sudo mkdosfs -F 32 -s 64 -R 1664 -n EXTERNAL_SD -v /dev/mmcblk0p1
mkdosfs 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 has 4 heads and 16 sectors per track,
logical sector size is 512,
using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 60203008 sectors;
file system has 2 32-bit FATs and 64 sectors per cluster.
FAT size is 7360 sectors, and provides 940416 clusters.
There are 1664 reserved sectors.
Volume ID is 8aa89e36, volume label EXTERNAL_SD.
You can see that each FAT takes less than 3.6 MiB, so with 2 FATs and the reserved sector the FAT description takes less than 8 MiB.
You can then check using hexdump if indeed the root directory starts at the the 12 MiB offset (knowing that the partition begin at the 4 MiB offset - indeed 12 = 4 + 8).
For that let's read the first 13 MiB of the card:
Code:
$> sudo hd -n $[13*1024*1024] /dev/mmcblk0
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 82 |................|
000001c0 03 00 0c f8 95 a3 00 20 00 00 00 a0 96 03 00 f8 |....... ........|
000001d0 96 a3 83 1b f3 28 00 c0 96 03 00 64 20 00 00 00 |.....(.....d ...|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00400000 eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73 66 73 00 00 02 40 80 06 |[email protected]|
00400010 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 10 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400020 00 a0 96 03 c0 1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 |................|
00400030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400040 00 00 29 e5 a5 dc 46 45 58 54 45 52 4e 41 4c 5f |..)...FEXTERNAL_|
00400050 53 44 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 0e 1f be 77 7c ac |SDFAT32 ...w|.|
00400060 22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 5e eb f0 32 |".t.V.......^..2|
00400070 e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 6e |.......This is n|
00400080 6f 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 64 69 |ot a bootable di|
00400090 73 6b 2e 20 20 50 6c 65 61 73 65 20 69 6e 73 65 |sk. Please inse|
004000a0 72 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 66 6c |rt a bootable fl|
004000b0 6f 70 70 79 20 61 6e 64 0d 0a 70 72 65 73 73 20 |oppy and..press |
004000c0 61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 74 72 79 20 61 |any key to try a|
004000d0 67 61 69 6e 20 2e 2e 2e 20 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 |gain ... .......|
004000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
004001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00400200 52 52 61 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |RRaA............|
00400210 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
004003e0 00 00 00 00 72 72 41 61 7e 59 0e 00 03 00 00 00 |....rrAa~Y......|
004003f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00400400 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00400c00 eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73 66 73 00 00 02 40 80 06 |[email protected]|
00400c10 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 10 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400c20 00 a0 96 03 c0 1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 |................|
00400c30 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00400c40 00 00 29 e5 a5 dc 46 45 58 54 45 52 4e 41 4c 5f |..)...FEXTERNAL_|
00400c50 53 44 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 0e 1f be 77 7c ac |SDFAT32 ...w|.|
00400c60 22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 5e eb f0 32 |".t.V.......^..2|
00400c70 e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 6e |.......This is n|
00400c80 6f 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 64 69 |ot a bootable di|
00400c90 73 6b 2e 20 20 50 6c 65 61 73 65 20 69 6e 73 65 |sk. Please inse|
00400ca0 72 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f 74 61 62 6c 65 20 66 6c |rt a bootable fl|
00400cb0 6f 70 70 79 20 61 6e 64 0d 0a 70 72 65 73 73 20 |oppy and..press |
00400cc0 61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 74 72 79 20 61 |any key to try a|
00400cd0 67 61 69 6e 20 2e 2e 2e 20 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 |gain ... .......|
00400ce0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00400df0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00400e00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
004d0000 f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f |................|
004d0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00868000 f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f |................|
00868010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00c00000 45 58 54 45 52 4e 41 4c 5f 53 44 08 00 00 52 b3 |EXTERNAL_SD...R.|
We can see that indeed the root partition starts at the offset 0x00c00000 which is 12 MiB!
Also note that 0x00400000 is the 4 MiB offset, the beginning of the FAT32 partition...
You can try the hexdump against the backup you did and you'll see that the factory formatting is also with a number of reserved sector so that the root directory is aligned. For example I've found the root directory at the 12 MiB offset (of course) and for that they use 1,170 reserved sector (I've decoded the hexdump to get that value) which matches the formula. They also set 8,192 hidden sectors - that's more for compatibility with some cameras, we don't care here...
Link2SD formatting:
I use ext4 for that partition, I've got inspiration from http://blogofterje.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/optimizing-fs-on-sd-card/, however I'm not sure if indeed using the stride and the stripe-width options is really needed:
Code:
[FONT=Courier New]$ sudo mkfs.ext4 -O ^has_journal -E stride=4,stripe-width=512 -b 4096 -L Link2SD /dev/mmcblk0p2
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Filesystem label=Link2SD
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=4 blocks, Stripe width=512 blocks
66384 inodes, 265344 blocks
13267 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=272629760
9 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7376 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 30 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.[/FONT]
Anyway I consider the Link2SD partition is going to be used much more for read than write and we need the same file system that is used on the other partitions of the phone (i.e. ext4).
I hope it's not too complicated and that will help
Some other references:
http://android.bytearrays.com/android/align-your-sdcard-fat-and-ext-partition/
http://www.bradfordembedded.com/2011/12/format-an-sd-card-with-8-mib-aligned-partitions/
http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=4993.0
http://www.patriotmemory.com/forums...ite-speed-by-aligning-FAT32&p=41521#post41521
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1224408
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what a nice answer... It's too complicated, but I think I can understand overall of that.. thanks mate

USB storage
Galaxy W has an internal USB Storage. Link2sd failed to move apps that have big database or library (like sygic) to the external memory but instead it was moved to the internal USB storage. How do I make Link2sd to move all the large apps to the external memory? Thanks in advance

Scootster said:
Galaxy W has an internal USB Storage. Link2sd failed to move apps that have big database or library (like sygic) to the external memory but instead it was moved to the internal USB storage. How do I make Link2sd to move all the large apps to the external memory? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swap the storage so that your external_sd will change place with the internal storage
Pressing "Thanks" button will be much appreciated if user's posts useful for you

swapped memory
reddvilzz said:
Swap the storage so that your external_sd will change place with the internal storage
Pressing "Thanks" button will be much appreciated if user's posts useful for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I swapped memory before this but the phone perform not very good. It lagged very much in switching from one task to another.
If memory was to swapped, then there is no use for Link2sd isn't it? because all apps were installed directly to. external memory. Does memory card needs to be in 2 partition?

No, swapped ish juz useless trick and could break ur sd card.

Dwama said:
No, swapped ish juz useless trick and could break ur sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you talking about?
There are 2 meanings of the word 'swap' for the W:
The 1st meaning is creating a swapfile and/or swap partition.
The 2nd meaning is to change the mount points of the internal SD and the external SD so that Android thought the external SD is the internal one (mounted at /sdcard) and the internal SD gets mounted to the external point ( /sdcard/external_sd)
The 1st meaning is the dangerous one. The 2nd meaning is instead very useful.
-- xda app / CM9b3 / DXKL1 / Galaxy W --

[MOD] Custom Boot Splash Generator - Create Your Own

You can customize your Boot Splash Picture
(This is the first picture you see when you boot up your device, before the boot animation starts. The one you also see before booting into recovery.)
I have done this for every device I owned so far, plus a few I did't own. Until now they have all been HTC devices. Today I added the Xiaomi 9T Pro / K20 Pro.
If you have your bootloader unlocked and have a custom recovery (tested only on twrp-3.3.1-15-raphael), you can create you own custom boot splash using this Boot Splash Creator tool.
How to do it:
Upload a picture to the online boot splash zip generator (http://jobiwan.net:81/bootsplash-9tpro). (If your picture is not 1080x2340 it will be resized while retaining proportions.)
It generates and downloads a flashable .zip file,
Flash the resulting .zip file in recovery.
Alternatively, you can take the logo.img file from the cache directory inside the .zip file and flash it in fastboot:
fastboot flash logo logo.img
Disclaimer:
You have unlocked and rooted your device, and flashed custom recoveries, so by now you should know that you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Anyway: This tool is provided as is, with no warranty whatsoever. If you brick your device, I will feel sad for you but I will not be responsible.
How it works:
I took the logo.img file from a firmware zip. This is a 24M file that contains 4 bitmaps:
The MI logo
The fastboot logo
The MI logo with unlocked at the bottom
System has been destroyed logo
Each one is 1080x1920, 24bpp.
This tool converts your picture into a 1080x2340 bitmap and replaces the raw image data in the original logo.img file with the raw image data from your picture.
It replaces bitmaps 1 and 3, the MI and MI unlocked logo's. Fastboot and Destroyed logo's remain original.
Then it puts this patched logo.img file into a zip with an updater script that puts it into the logo partition. This .zip file gets sent back to your browser.
Back to stock:
The attached .zip files are recovery flashable. They contain the stock boot splashes for raphael and raphaelin respectively. (I put the original logo.img files in them.) So if you ever want the stock splash back, you can flash this.
('extracted-bitmaps.zip' is not flashable. It contains the original logo's as .bmp files.)
Share & Enjoy!
If you create any cool splashes, that others might like, please post them in this thread with a pictures and zips.
-Jobo
Update Oct. 16, 2019: Online tool now generates 1080x2340 plash images.

Nice

Can I use this on K20 Pro Raphaelin?

Anonda said:
Can I use this on K20 Pro Raphaelin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[edit:]Yes you can. See post below this one.[/edit]
I can not say for 100% sure, because I do not own a raphaelin device to test with.
However, I strongly believe that you can do it. Here is why:
I looked at the logo.img files from a raphael and raphaelin firmware zip.
They are not the same: They have the bitmaps at different offsets. But the structure is the same. They both have the signature and index at the same offset (0x4000 or 16k) and the addresses of the bitmaps are int he same place in the index.
This is from V10.3.3.0.PFKEUXM:
Code:
00004000 4c 4f 47 4f 21 21 21 21 05 00 00 00 ef 05 00 00 |LOGO!!!!........|
00004010 f4 05 00 00 ef 05 00 00 e3 0b 00 00 ef 05 00 00 |................|
00004020 d2 11 00 00 ef 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00004030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
It has the bitmaps at 0x0005000, 0x05f4000, 0x0be3000, 0x11d2000
This is from V10.3.5.0.PFKINXM:
Code:
00004000 4c 4f 47 4f 21 21 21 21 05 00 00 00 3b 07 00 00 |LOGO!!!!....;...|
00004010 40 07 00 00 ef 05 00 00 2f 0d 00 00 3b 07 00 00 |@......./...;...|
00004020 6a 14 00 00 ef 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |j...............|
00004030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
It has the bitmaps at 0x0005000, 0x0740000, 0x0d2f000, 0x146a000
After confirming this, I felt confident / brave / stupid enough to flash the logo.img from the raphaelin firmware into my raphael. When I rebooted, it showed the Redmi logo and everything was fine.
So since flashing the raphaelin logo in a raphael device is safe and works fine, I would think that the reverse is also true.
If you or anyone with an Indian K20 have done this, please report back.
-Jobo

touch of jobo said:
I can not say for 100% sure, because I do not own a raphaelin device to test with.
However, I strongly believe that you can do it. Here is why:
I looked at the logo.img files from a raphael and raphaelin firmware zip.
They are not the same: They have the bitmaps at different offsets. But the structure is the same. They both have the signature and index at the same offset (0x4000 or 16k) and the addresses of the bitmaps are int he same place in the index.
This is from V10.3.3.0.PFKEUXM:
Code:
00004000 4c 4f 47 4f 21 21 21 21 05 00 00 00 ef 05 00 00 |LOGO!!!!........|
00004010 f4 05 00 00 ef 05 00 00 e3 0b 00 00 ef 05 00 00 |................|
00004020 d2 11 00 00 ef 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00004030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
It has the bitmaps at 0x0005000, 0x05f4000, 0x0be3000, 0x11d2000
This is from V10.3.5.0.PFKINXM:
Code:
00004000 4c 4f 47 4f 21 21 21 21 05 00 00 00 3b 07 00 00 |LOGO!!!!....;...|
00004010 40 07 00 00 ef 05 00 00 2f 0d 00 00 3b 07 00 00 |@......./...;...|
00004020 6a 14 00 00 ef 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |j...............|
00004030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
It has the bitmaps at 0x0005000, 0x0740000, 0x0d2f000, 0x146a000
After confirming this, I felt confident / brave / stupid enough to flash the logo.img from the raphaelin firmware into my raphael. When I rebooted, it showed the Redmi logo and everything was fine.
So since flashing the raphaelin logo in a raphael device is safe and works fine, I would think that the reverse is also true.
If you or anyone with an Indian K20 have done this, please report back.
-Jobo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Raphael logos work on raphaelin without any issues!
Regards,
acervenky

acervenky said:
Raphael logos work on raphaelin without any issues!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for confirming. That's good to know.
I have added a zip with the stock logo for raphaelin to the original post.
-Jobo

Here is a boot splash plus boot animation that go well together.
They are the same style and the first (and last) frame of the animation is the same as the splash.
The boot animation is not recovery flashable. You have to manually copy it to /system/media/
-Jobo

Do you have the raw files of the 4 bitmaps inside the original logo.img of K20 Pro? Because I can't extract it and I want to get the original bitmaps/stock logos and start edit on it. Thanks

ispiyaakoe said:
Do you have the raw files of the 4 bitmaps inside the original logo.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. I have added them as an attachment to the first post, in 'extracted-bitmaps.zip'.
Inside the .zip are 8 .bmp files. euX.bmp are from European firmware, inX.bmp are from Indian firmware.
Interestingly, the bitmaps in the Indian firmware are not all the same size.
The 'normal' logo's are 1080x2340 while the 'fastboot' and 'destroyed' logo's are 1080x1920.
I think I will change my online tool to generate 1080x2340 splashes instead of 1080x1920.
Edit: Done. Online tool now generates 1080x2340 plash images.

Thank you very much! You are awesome.

There is a crop up and down at 1080p images. Other than that is working properly!!! Thx!

pikachukaki said:
There is a crop up and down at 1080p images. Other than that is working properly!!! Thx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have updated the online tool to generate 1080x2340 images instead of 1080x1920. This fills the entire screen.
(It also no longer distorts the image when stretching. It now scales the image proportionally for best fit and puts it on a 1080x2340 black background.)
Originally I made them 1080x1920 because that's how they are in the PFKEUXM firmware.
Only after looking into the Indian K20 Pro firmware did I find out that it also works with full 1080x2340 bitmaps.

Here is Google black boot logo + black android 10 bootanimation. Bootanimation is only for AOSP ROMs.
Thanks and credit to @touch of jobo for his tool.

Xiaomi Bunny pics
I took the images from this set: http://vkclub.su/en/stickers/xiaomi/
..and converted them to boot splash zips.
(On that site, it says the Author / Illustrator is 'Xiaomi'...)
It is the same creature that we have on our stock fastboot logo. I think they were originally meant as emoticons. Some of them have some text (in what seems to be Russian) in very dark grey. I first overlaid the images on this same dark grey color and then turned that dark grey into black. This gets rid of the text.
Attached to this post are:
The 16 images where I put the original pictures on a black background,
The original pictures in originals.zip
The flashable bootsplash zips are inside zips-000-007.zip and zips-008-015.zip
I put the 16 bootsplash zips inside 2 new zips to get around the 20 attachments per post limit.
This means they are fairly large. You can also just download individual pictures and run those through the tool.
(So just to clarify: Those 2 large zips are not flashable. They each contain 8 other zips that are flashable.)

gianton said:
Here is Google black boot logo + black android 10 bootanimation.
Thanks and credit to @touch of jobo for his tool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bootanimation does not work. Tested on my K20 pro

omkar1997 said:
Bootanimation does not work. Tested on my K20 pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to mention bootanimation is only for AOSP ROMs.

IdrisMC said:
Can you flash both on LOS 17?
Does the splash also include the google bootloader image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's what I'm using with LOS 17. Flash both in recovery (mount system first).

Silhouette of trees against winter evening sky
I took this picture about 10 years ago. Since then I have used it as a wallpaper on every computer and phone I used. I think it goes really well with a dark theme.
Now I made a boot splash and boot animation based on this picture. They are the original 9T-Pro splash and animation, but with this photo as the background.
By default, the lock screen takes the center of the wallpaper (when you select 'Apply Both'), which is the same cut-out I use as the background for the splash and boot animation.
Attachments:
bootsplash-9tpro-trees.zip
This is a recovery flashable zip that replaces your boot splash.
bootanimation.zip
This zip is not flashable You have to put it in /system/media/
(This is an external link, not an attachment. The file was too large to attach.)
trees-wall.jpg.zip
This is the full resolution wallpaper 3120x2340 (zipped)
trees-boot.jpg
This is a picture of the boot splash.
trees-small.jpg
This is a small, lower quality version of the picture inside trees-wall-jpg.zip. Just as a preview.
Enjoy,
-Jobo

Thanks for this tool, it's amazing
Sent from my raphael using XDA Labs

What are the odds of working on Mi 9T (Davinci)?
PS. Tested and it works like a charm S2