Develop Bugs

[Q] Creating an EXT partition on SD card

On a rooted HTC Desire I installed the XDA rom: “LeeDrOiD V2.0 (30/08 l Official 2.2 l FAST l STABLE l OPTIONAL A2SD+)”.
I need to create on the SD Card (of 16GB) a partition EXT3.
I have used Quick System Info Pro and A2SC storage to check and it displays “Information not available”.
I have installed on HTC the utility “Rom Manager” in order to try to create the EXT type partition.
When I am trying to format with Rom Manager the software does not ask me what type of partition to create (EXT2 or EXT3), but only what size to have and the size of swap.
Can you help me by giving advice on how to create the EXT3 partition?
Thank you in advance.

Rom manager creates ext3 partitions.

Lennyuk said:
Rom manager creates ext3 partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I partitioned with Rom Manager my sd card with Ext size=512MB and swap=0.
After that, again, Quick System Info Pro say, at <A2SD storage> : “Information not available”.
??
(sorry for my english)

Did you reboot your phone once done?

I am stuck in the same position, in Rom manager I select the size and swap and then it reboots. It now goes straight to a diagram of an exclamation mark in a white triangle and an Android bot. I waited for 15 minutes and nothing happens. Here I press the oj and there is some information stating that there is some problem with the update.zip. SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!

EddyOS said:
Did you reboot your phone once done?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
And... exact like <David0123> !

Same thing here
I'm just gonna chime in and say I'm having the same issue here when trying to create the partition using rom manager.
I ended up creating the partition using gparted on my linux box, but after copying all the files back to my fat32 partition, and rebooting my phone it no longer recognizes the applications installed to sd using froyo a2sd. (I have not installed old school a2sd yet as it is not compatible with the version of CM I'm using... waiting for 6.1)
Is there a reason the phone wouldn't see the files for the applications? I created my fat32 partition first, then an ext3 with the remainder.

Is it possible to create a 1gb ext partition using ROM Manager?
Hi.
I have an HTC Desire (T-Mobile UK) usng the Pinky Desre 1.8 rom. I have ROM Manager Premium installed, but this only allows upto 512mb for an ext partition.
I have a 8gb MicroSD card and would liike to create a 1gb ext2/3/4 partiton.
Does anyone have any nfo on how I can do this (assumng that ts possible of course)
Thanks in advance

killawatts said:
I'm just gonna chime in and say I'm having the same issue here when trying to create the partition using rom manager.
I ended up creating the partition using gparted on my linux box, but after copying all the files back to my fat32 partition, and rebooting my phone it no longer recognizes the applications installed to sd using froyo a2sd. (I have not installed old school a2sd yet as it is not compatible with the version of CM I'm using... waiting for 6.1)
Is there a reason the phone wouldn't see the files for the applications? I created my fat32 partition first, then an ext3 with the remainder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried
- moving all the apps on the SD back to the phone
- Do a backup i.e. Titanium
- Reboot phone
- Create partition using ROM Manager
- Re-install apps \ Move to SD
I haven't tried ths, but thinking logically, it should work

vybztymz said:
Have you tried
- moving all the apps on the SD back to the phone
- Do a backup i.e. Titanium
- Reboot phone
- Create partition using ROM Manager
- Re-install apps \ Move to SD
I haven't tried ths, but thinking logically, it should work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 16mb of available space on my phone with every application possible moved to the sd card so moving them back is out of the question. I guess I could always just do an brainapp sync for my free apps and re-install the rest from .apk. I'm thinking now I'll hold off until I get a class 6 to make the ext partition.

vybztymz said:
Hi.
I have an HTC Desire (T-Mobile UK) usng the Pinky Desre 1.8 rom. I have ROM Manager Premium installed, but this only allows upto 512mb for an ext partition.
I have a 8gb MicroSD card and would liike to create a 1gb ext2/3/4 partiton.
Does anyone have any nfo on how I can do this (assumng that ts possible of course)
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amon-Ra lets you make bigger partitions that Recovery Manager/ClockWorkMod
There is a way to do this via ADB I believe as well, or a linux partition manager like GParted.

Lennyuk said:
Amon-Ra lets you make bigger partitions that Recovery Manager/ClockWorkMod
There is a way to do this via ADB I believe as well, or a linux partition manager like GParted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip.
I'm checking the forums on Amon-Ra....need to know a few things i.e. can it be installed \ work with CW; does CW need to be uninstalled etc)
Will try the Linux G-Parted route as well.
Thanks

vybztymz said:
Thanks for the tip.
I'm checking the forums on Amon-Ra....need to know a few things i.e. can it be installed \ work with CW; does CW need to be uninstalled etc)
Will try the Linux G-Parted route as well.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How mine is set up
Use Unrevoked to install Amon-Ra (that way if you enter recovery via HBOOT you go to Amon-Ra
Then keep RomManager installed, if you need to do anything via clockworkmod you can do it via this app, which "fake flashes" the recovery for its purposes, however still leaves Amon-Ra as its permanent recovery.

Lennyuk said:
How mine is set up
Use Unrevoked to install Amon-Ra (that way if you enter recovery via HBOOT you go to Amon-Ra
Then keep RomManager installed, if you need to do anything via clockworkmod you can do it via this app, which "fake flashes" the recovery for its purposes, however still leaves Amon-Ra as its permanent recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again....
I rooted using Unrevoked via Slax, and just want to ask if usng Unrevoked again means I'll have to re-root...or can I just install Amon-Ra?
(apologies if this is a silly question)

My unanswered ROM Manager, SD Card Partition post looks like it belongs here
I rooted my dInc with UnRevoked & 4ever and am now running SkyRaider 3.0 Sense (seems stable & fast) and I see that there's an update available to SR Sense 3.1 RC3 - so I figure now might be a good time to use ROM Manager to create an Ext partition for Apps on my 16G Kingston Class 10 SD card - although, so far I've been using App2SD successfully w/o partitioning the card. What's the benefit? The ability to back up apps on the sd card?
Anyway, I did nandroid & Titanium backups and copied my entire card to a folder on my PC.
My first question is what size ext partition should I choose? (I do currently have a ton of apps - but will be paring down to a leaner machine with fewer redundant apps). Also, what swap size do you suggest?
2nd, when I copy from the PC's SD Card folder back SD Card, which files & folders go to the ext. partition? Just the moved apps?. Then, all the rest to the main partition?
Then, do I just mount the card in the phone and run the update with a full wipe?
I already have the Goodies installed but, will I want to d/l the newest kernel?
Lastly, which of Titaniums' batch restore scenarios is best to finish with? Missing Apps w/ data? All apps & system data?
I realize there are numerous ways to go on this but I'm hoping you folks have some experience you can share before I make any major changes to a phone that's really running pretty well.
Please keep in mind I'm working with ROM Manager and I haven't gotten into sdk, adb, emulation or overclocking - yet

Dartmouth70 said:
I rooted my dInc with UnRevoked & 4ever and am now running SkyRaider 3.0 Sense (seems stable & fast) and I see that there's an update available to SR Sense 3.1 RC3 - so I figure now might be a good time to use ROM Manager to create an Ext partition for Apps on my 16G Kingston Class 10 SD card - although, so far I've been using App2SD successfully w/o partitioning the card. What's the benefit? The ability to back up apps on the sd card?
Anyway, I did nandroid & Titanium backups and copied my entire card to a folder on my PC.
My first question is what size ext partition should I choose? (I do currently have a ton of apps - but will be paring down to a leaner machine with fewer redundant apps). Also, what swap size do you suggest?
2nd, when I copy from the PC's SD Card folder back SD Card, which files & folders go to the ext. partition? Just the moved apps?. Then, all the rest to the main partition?
Then, do I just mount the card in the phone and run the update with a full wipe?
I already have the Goodies installed but, will I want to d/l the newest kernel?
Lastly, which of Titaniums' batch restore scenarios is best to finish with? Missing Apps w/ data? All apps & system data?
I realize there are numerous ways to go on this but I'm hoping you folks have some experience you can share before I make any major changes to a phone that's really running pretty well.
Please keep in mind I'm working with ROM Manager and I haven't gotten into sdk, adb, emulation or overclocking - yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(Q1) I have an 8gb sdcard and created a 1gb Ext2 partition using G-Parted (using Ubuntu 10.04 onmy thumb drive). You dont need to create SWAP. I did'nt use ROM Manager as it (a) totally wipes your sdcard and (b) it only allows for a 512mb partition. I still copied all my sdcard data to my NAS beforehand though....just in case
once I parttioned my sdcard,
I did a full wipe (incl. cache \ dalvic etc)
Installed custom ROM (Pinky Desire 1.8 – FRF91 Official Sense Release).
Then re-installed everything from scratch as, like you, was unsure how TB would restore my backups.
Then used TB to restore User apps w /Data. I figured that system apps were easier\safer to reconfigure manually
Once done, and tested - did an"all user apps+system data" backup with TB.
Booted into Recovery, and did Nandroid backup (and copied that to my NAS bos)
Dont worry about which apps go to the EXT partition. As I understand it, most free apps can be moved\installed to the SDCard; paid apps can only be moved\nstalled to sdcard if the developer has enabled it to do so. I use an app called App 2 SD - it dentifies which appa can be moved to sdcard.
I'm pretty sure that there are easier \ quicker ways, and that my way is over cautious, but it was useful in giving me a better understanding of Android.
I hope this helps.

Thanx for the feedback!
Sounds like about what I'll be doing - unless someone comes up with specific details on using ROM Manager.
What's particularly confusing is that even the apps that can be moved to the SD card only partially reside on the card.

Help with sd ext partitioning

Ok so this all started when I switched from Cyanogen to Fresh 3.2. I used Amon Ra's Recovery to wipe and because it said to so a full wipe I figured I had to wipe evey option on Amon Ra's Recovery including sd ext. When I did That I got and error that said "Error: run "wipe ext" from abd!". I read somewhere that that wasn't going to be a problem so I continued loading the rom and it booted fine. I ran into problems later on when I tried installing Backbreakers. I got an error in the notification bar that said "installation unsuccessful". I later got the same message when trying to install Angry Birds. I've learned from other threads that those games should work fine on Fresh's roms. I now have the newest Fresh rom and still have the same problem. Just recently I found out that I shouldn't have wiped sd ext partition if I didn't have one setup. Now, I never set one up myself, but maybe one was setup automatically through one of the roms I had used. Now I want to fix the problem with my Sd ext partition (I know I'm not using The term correctly because I no nothing about it) and find out what it does. If anyone could help me understand what an sd ext partition is and how to solve my problem I would be very thankful.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

You can set it up in Ra recovery. It's very easy. Make sure you back up your sd card to your computer cuz partitioning will wipe it.
Download DarkTremor from HERE
Select Partition SD card from the recovery menu
The first option is for a swap file which we dont really need so set it to 0MB
The next is for your ext partition. 256MB should be plenty but if you've got a large SD card feel free to go higher.
After that's done, you can upgrade it from ext2 to ext3 which isnt necessary.
Boot up the phone or mount sd card from recovery and place the DarkTremor file you downloaded on your sd card and flash as you would a rom.
After the phone boots up you can open a Terminal Emulator and type:
su (then press enter)
You should see a # symbol. Now type:
a2sd cachesd
This will move dalvik cache to your sd card and free up even more memory. Just remember to wipe ext partition before flashing a new rom and I believe you'll need to flash the DarkTremor file again after you flash a new rom. Your ext partition will remain. Hope this helps. If you have any more questions most can be answered in the DarkTremor thread or feel free to PM me.

Wow thanks for the great info. I'm going to do this hopefully it will fix my problem. What is an sd partition for anyways or what does it do? I have the 6gb sd card that came with my evo goe much space should I put for my ext partition? Thanks for all of the help.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

StrummingLevi said:
Wow thanks for the great info. I'm going to do this hopefully it will fix my problem. What is an sd partition for anyways or what does it do? I have the 6gb sd card that came with my evo goe much space should I put for my ext partition? Thanks for all of the help.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ext partition is a physical memory area in your sd card which is formated the same as the internal memory of the phone. Not like the rest of the sdcard. The limits are set on the rest of the card so the stuff in the ext with it's sequential byte order won't be over-written by the pc-like low-high byte order of the rest. Stuff can be logically assigned to the ext partition by the OS. At startup a find is issued on the partition, if it's there then automatically Fresh's / tremor's ap2sd "program" puts portions of applications on the sdcard. You can manually augment what gets put into the ext partition by issuing commands. Aps2sd was important on devices with limited internal memory.

StrummingLevi said:
Wow thanks for the great info. I'm going to do this hopefully it will fix my problem. What is an sd partition for anyways or what does it do? I have the 6gb sd card that came with my evo goe much space should I put for my ext partition? Thanks for all of the help.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to mention, its recommended you use a class 4 SD card or faster. I'm not certain what the consequences are but when I ran a2sd on my G1 with a class 2, the phone would crash.
Sent from my SUPERSONIC

[Q] Can't make apps move to SD card

Heya,
Today I flashed a fresh Defrost 6.1a (Which is said to support A2SD+), Flashed Gapps. So far so good.
I took my 8GB SD card and partitioned it in Ubuntu using Gpareted. I set the FAT32 partition first, then a ext3 partition (512MB) second.
Ubuntu read both with accurate sizes.
I put the card back into the phone and looked "SD card & phone storage", it no said my SD card is only 6.89GB, but the Internal phone storage was still low.
I decided to check a little more with Titanium Backup, which surprisingly said that my ext3 partition is only 256MB and is half full (talking about a fresh ROM here).
Can someone point me to where I did wrong?
Maybe format using ext4?
Put the ext partition first?
Reflash ROM after partitioning?
TNX

I have never got A2SD working either. I think you need to install a script or something. Here is a post about A2SD. Also, Android 2.2+ supports moving apps to SD anyway.
If you want more space to install apps, you can install one of AlphaRev's HBoot templates which can increase the /data partition, that's if you have S-Off.
I couldn't be bothered farting around with A2SD and so I did that instead.

CoreOxide said:
Maybe format using ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it will not make it work and will only increase your memory card's wear.
CoreOxide said:
Reflash ROM after partitioning?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you flashed the a2sd enabled ROM on the device which didn't have memory card prepared? I always thought such enterprises would end in a boot loop. Flash it again if this is the case.
GoogleJelly said:
Also, Android 2.2+ supports moving apps to SD anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not teh same thing!
erklat said:
How do you inspect if a2sd is working? Coz I think u r doing it wrong. Install Quick system info and check what it says under a2sd storage and if it slowly decreases when you install apps, which means it is working. You don't have to set default install location anywhere, the script does that for you.
What you are referring to here, is Froyo's built-in a2sd which requires the app to be optimized for app2sd, that's why only some of your apps seem to be on the SD card. Furthermore, it will transfer the apps to FAT32 partition, that you don't want for it to do since Android first loads apps which need to be loaded at startup, and afterwards it mounts the SD card, which will lead to some apps failing to start after boot.
a2sd tricks the phone into thinking that ext partition is it's internal memory. Froyo app2sd != a2sd script, don't confuse those two, they are not the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Q] How to get widgets to run from SD card

i got my last question solved but I read somewhere that usin darktremors script would allow me to run widgets from sd card because the system thinks they are still in the correct place.
running GV1.5 partitions fat32/ext3/linux-swap.
I installed the script after mounting /data and /system from the recovery. After that I rebooted and ran the script commands. Moved a widget to sd card and it vanished from screen just like froyo.
what am I doing wrong?
I know you need to move the dalvik-cache for this to work. but recovery can't find sd-ext.

Huh? From what i know widgets will not work if u put them in the micro sd.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

lainvalenajr said:
Huh? From what i know widgets will not work if u put them in the micro sd.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using stock froyo a2sd (apps2fat) will not allow you to run widgets. If you partition your sdcard (ext partition) and use the old style a2sd (apps2ext) using darktremors a2sd package you can run widgets from the sdcard. Along with putting the entire app, not just 1/2 or 1/4 of it, on the sdcard plus all of it's data (optional).
If it's easy for you to understand it as the phone thinking the ext partition is part of the internal memory, that's good enough since it's basically what's going on.
Spastic909 said:
I installed the script after mounting /data and /system from the recovery. After that I rebooted and ran the script commands. Moved a widget to sd card and it vanished from screen just like froyo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you did wrong is moving the app to the sdcard. The commands you run in terminal move the apps to the sd ext partition. Specifically this one:
Code:
#su
#cd /system/bin
#a2sd cachesd
It will still show it as installed to the internal memory because it thinks it is. Even in a file explorer under data/app it shows the apps but that's part of the *trick*.
If you go into applications and move it to the sdcard it puts it on the fat32 partition which is where the froyo version puts them - don't do that. That's what you did wrong.

KCRic... huh i didnt know that. Ill try that. Spastic u should try that lol
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

i installed the busybox 1.18.0.git
wiped everything in recovery and from recovery ran the script. After I rebooted I ran the commands in terminal.
then my phone rebooted...does that mean it worked?

Spastic909 said:
i installed the busybox 1.18.0.git
wiped everything in recovery and from recovery ran the script. After I rebooted I ran the commands in terminal.
then my phone rebooted...does that mean it worked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. You can use titanium backup to make sure. Just open it and you should see a bar at the bottom showing sdext available/free. Also you can use a file explorer - got to /sdext and you should see an app, app-private, dalvikcache, data, and one or two other folders listed. If you do then it worked.
You can also use terminal to have a2sd check and make sure it's working but I don't want to load the thread with commands I'll post them if you want to learn a bit though

Sorry to resurrect this thread, I thought it better than making my own.
I'm running CM 6.1.3 and have an 8GB SD card inside.
1) How do I check how the SD card is formatted? And if it doesn't have an EXT3 partition, how do I partition it property?
and 2) Is there an easy, non-terminal way to send apps to the EXT3 partition, akin to hitting "move to SD card" in android settings. And since, as you said, it moves all the data to the EXT3 partition, not just some, is it best to keep most of my apps there, to free up internal memory as best as possible?
And PS, when I'm partitioning my SD card, will I need to create a SWAP partition? 1GB for an 8GB stick?
Thanks so much.
EDIT: I'm on an X10 if that helps..

[Q] Internal Memory Full after Reboot; All Apps on SD

My HTC Desire was restarted due to low battery long after I restored some backups (app + data) with Titanium Backup. When I booted back into Android, it showed 1MB of free internal space! So thought it might be the 4 downloads I had, so I deleted all of them and Android then said it had 61MB of free internal space.
Then I rebooted but now I only have 216KB free space!!
This is the second time it's happened and I've tried everything including SD Maid and every single app is linked to the SD card's 2nd partition. This didn't happen when Installing apps from the Play store or from Easy Installer; and Avast finds no problems.
It keeps saying "Unfortunately Google Play Store has stopped" etc. and the phone is very slow including booting.
I'm not willing to re-flash everything again and manually install each app, especially as the first time re-flashing, Clockwork Recovery said it couldn't mount the SD card, then after formatting, Windows 7 wouldn't recognize it, then neither would (after formatting using gparted)!
I'm only using Link2SD on ICS for HTC Desire 0.4.4.4.1, default HBoot, Clockworkmod Recovery Touch 5.8.0.2, aGPS and default homescreen with no scripts.
This is extremely irritating, can anyone help please?

Using any scripts like A2SD?

Cool story bro. Please post more relevant information so peeps here can help you out. How about letting us know your hboot information, rom you are currently using, scripts etc. ;-)

I'm only using Link2SD on ICS for HTC Desire 0.4.4.4.1, default HBoot, Clockworkmod Recovery Touch 5.8.0.2, aGPS and default homescreen with no scripts.

DarkIceGB said:
I'm only using Link2SD on ICS for HTC Desire 0.4.4.4.1, default HBoot, Clockworkmod Recovery Touch 5.8.0.2, aGPS and default homescreen with no scripts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try stock a2sd then enable it with terminal
Code:
su
a2sd install
y
y
y
Edit: also DL 5.1, i found 4.4.4.1 SUPER buggy.

Thanks for the help, I've tried the above and it's been booting for 10 minutes now, should I wait for it to finish or is it stuck?
Edit: After 30 minutes of booting, I took the battery out. It now won't go past booting (the animated 'X screen') and it takes ages to get past the 'HTC' screen to the boot screen.
Edit 2: I booted into recovery and cleared all caches and fixed permissions and after booting it doesn't say the memory is full! Thanks for your help!
What else did it move and is the data on the first partition of the SD card or the second and can I remove the SD card safely? Any idea how the internal memory was filled and why there were issues with the SD card or if they might appear again? It's a new Samsung Extreme Speed Class 10 16GB Micro SDHC card.

I can't move apps from the SD card to the SD card's second partition or to the internal memory. It says, "pkg: /mnt/asec/appnamehere/pkg.apk Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE]".
The internal memory is empty, the SD card has 8GB of free space and the 2nd partition has 1GB free out of 2GB.

Just upgraded to 5.1 and it's the same as above. Any ideas?

Anyone have any idea?

What A2SD-option did you pick in Aroma Installer? I cannot see any Link2SD option there.

Sorry I meant I chose the built-in a2sd but I used this app called Link2SD as I have a second partition on my sd card for apps.

DarkIceGB said:
Sorry I meant I chose the built-in a2sd but I used this app called Link2SD as I have a second partition on my sd card for apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How have you partitioned your SD? Primary and secondary FAT32 or primary FAT32 and secondary EXT? I've never used Link2SD 'cause i prefer the script way, but i think it works the same way.
If you are using EXT for secondary, i recommend you the 4ext recovery, if you are S-OFF you can install it directly from the phone using the Updater form 4ext.net.
Then I suggest you to do:
A nandroid backup
A backup of your SD data
Repartition you SD using 4ext
Check partition allignment with 4ext
Do a full wipe
Restore your SD's backup
Restore your nandroid backup
Re-install 0.5.1 and select built-in a2sd
In rom use terminal like bortak stated, but say NO to moving appdata (slowed down my phone a lot)
Uninstall Link2SD
This will give you a standard installation for a2sd.
If I were in you, i would format everything (except SD card first partition) and start from scratch with the built-in a2sd method without Link2SD; you'll have to reinstall everything and lose every data (backup with TB if you can), but you are sure to run a rock solid method to "enlarge you space"
If you are on double FAT32... well, i cannot help you there
Bortak, correct me if i ever say stupids things i want to help out and you surely are a master in troubleshooting and point to my errors
I'm actually running BCM 3.0U0 + 3.0U1 update with m2sd (with apps and dalvik on ext), 100% V6 supercharged and ScrollingCache patched... i have to say, in my opinion, it finally surpassed Sandvold ICS!

Thanks a lot for the help, I've followed the steps and everything's working now!
I used 4ext recovery, which appears to be a lot better than clockworkmod, with more useful options. 4etx said that the partitions weren't aligned (which I previously set in clockworkmod) so I wiped everything and made fresh partitions which were perfectly aligned. I'm using 0.5.2 now with a full format.
I had/have fat32 then ext4.
I've noticed that most apps don't appear to be on the SD card though. Any advice?