Database Develop

How to SWAP for tattoo

Warning : It can (and will) shorten SD or NAND lifespan.
A little tutorial for those who want to try swap on their tattoo without decreasing the life of their sd card.
Download the file attached here, or here.
And then do this :
Code:
adb shell "mkdir /data/swap"
adb push swapfile.swp /data/swap
adb shell
mkswap /data/swap/swapfile.swp
losetup /dev/block/loop0 /data/swap/swapfile.swp
swapon /dev/block/loop0
free ( to check if its running)
If you want to use it on the SD :
Code:
adb push swapfile.swp /sdcard/
adb shell
mkswap /sdcard/swapfile.swp
losetup /dev/block/loop0 /sdcard/swapfile.swp
swapon /dev/block/loop0
free ( to check if its running)
Keep in mind you must do losetup and swapon after each reboot.
Have been testing it for a while. No problems till now and delivers a very noticeable speed increase.

Thank you very much igstoian.
I'm gonna use it in my ROM if you don't mind.

Great that I can help.
Also post your experience with it. How is the speed gain?

Maybe this is a dumb question, but is it possible to enable swap even if my phone does not have custom boot.img??
I've rooted it, but not permanently (after a reboot I have to run the exploit again and I don't want to take the risk to brick it).
/Edit: WTF?! It's blazing fast Thank you!

Then you have to run the exploit and enable swap on every reboot if you want it...

You are actually using the data partitions for swap? And you think that increases SD card life? Sure it does, but what about the NAND flash that our data partition is, and has poorer life anyway than the damn 10 buck SDcard!?

eyegor said:
You are actually using the data partitions for swap? And you think that increases SD card life? Sure it does, but what about the NAND flash that our data partition is, and has poorer life anyway than the damn 10 buck SDcard!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right
guess it's still too hard to change internal storages

It would be better to use a swap partition? A file is not the same as a partition.
Testing, swap file in system memory:
-a full day of use, the swap is 3 mb.
-30 programs loading into memory, the swap is less than 4 mb of use.
The use made is at least equal to a partition could increase. Or helping the compcache (I haven´t compcache)

It doesnt matter if its a file or a partition. you write files to a partition or you write info to a file. its still writing and its the read-write cycles that damages memory, not the amount of files being written.

lgstoian said:
Warning : It can (and will) shorten SD or NAND lifespan.
A little tutorial for those who want to try swap on their tattoo without decreasing the life of their sd card.
Download the file attached here, or here.
And then do this :
Code:
adb shell "mkdir /data/swap"
adb push swapfile.swp /data/swap
adb shell
mkswap /data/swap/swapfile.swp
losetup /dev/block/loop0 /data/swap/swapfile.swp
swapon /dev/block/loop0
free ( to check if its running)
If you want to use it on the SD :
Code:
adb push swapfile.swp /sdcard/
adb shell
mkswap /sdcard/swapfile.swp
losetup /dev/block/loop0 /sdcard/swapfile.swp
swapon /dev/block/loop0
free ( to check if its running)
Keep in mind you must do losetup and swapon after each reboot.
Have been testing it for a while. No problems till now and delivers a very noticeable speed increase.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thankyo lgstoian for this how-to
Only a question:
Can I push swapfile.swp in /cache directory instead /data?
/chache has more space free

I guess you can. I haven't tryed it yet. But as it has been said in the thread it's preferable to use the sd and not any internal memory.

Wow, thank you, really speed improvement!
How to make it permanent? We have to modify init.rc in boot image?

Do you have to modify init.rc to make it permanent ? :/

Why not just use swapper?
http://code.google.com/p/a-swapper/
P

Thank you Paul : )

help
hello what we type and where type and what by type

paulobrien said:
Why not just use swapper?
...
P
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because not everyone flashed his tattoo and has a custom ROM, so for the folks who have to use the m7 exploit everytime after a reboot, the method lgstoian presented is the only choice
Greets

I have formatted a swap partition on my sdcard. How to use it??

Interesting. However, using swap on SD makes your SD Card unable to unmount. Internal Flash is better, 16MB on my end and I see no damage yet. And the swap is full too (16MB used, 0MB free!)

Yet. Exactly, no damage YET.
The nand flash uses a bad-block management system so i have no idea how one would notice it, i guess files getting corrupt and space being reduced.
Anyway, the only phones running android that need swap are the G1 and 32B magic.
Those phones simply have too little RAM, using straight compcache is a lot better for the 32A Magic (it resides in RAM, thus no damage) and hence the tattoo has the same amount of RAM it is better for it as well

Is it possible to run stock image of sd?

Sorry if there is a thread like this somewhere but I couldnt locate. I was wondering if there is a stock 1.1 image we can run off sd. The only real reason I want to keep the stock image is I have some kids book that dont work through the app. So I would like to be able to boot froyo from internal for the speed when I am using and boot stock off sd when my kid wants to play with it. Thanks in advance

Possible? Yes. Has anybody bothered to do it yet? Nope. The demand just isn't there for the amount of work required.
There's a froyo + stock dual boot available though. You get to choose at boot up whether to load stock or froyo. Look in the dev section of the forums for the thread on how to do it.

From what I've read you should just be able to decompile the uRamdisk, and recompile it after editting the init.rc file, mapping mmcblk0p5 and mmblk0p6 to mmcblk1p2 and mmcblk1p3. Then just dd mmcblk0p5 to mmcblk1p2 (you may need to shrink it depending on the size of your sd card) and copy the new uRamdisk and uImage to the boot partition of the sd card. I assume the u-boot.bin from any of the other sd card builds would work, alongside the same partition layout

Thanks for the replies yeah I get the lack of demand issue. I just wish the nook app had support for those books. Guess I will just setup the dual boot on emmc and if I read up some more and get brave try to get it done myself.
Sent from my LogicPD Zoom2 using XDA App

Very easy to do..
-Enter adb shell and enter 'busybox fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0 -l' to print partition layout.
-Reproduce layout on the sdcard, with gparted/easeus. Don't forget the boot flag on first partition. You can extend media partition to use the remaining sdcard space.
- use my USB mass storage utility and mount each internal partition
- make tars/zips of every partition content.
- extract tars to SD partitions.
- then, as said above, edit init.rc (if you're too lazy, i can post one here, takes 2 mins to do)
- insert and boot..
Sam
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

[Dev] Research on native ext4 partition

* Update * - 02/28/2012
I had a little chat with one of Archos dev, he told me that mmcblk0p3 was his gift for us!
So, what does it mean:
1) Archos is very developer friendly. We've known that already, but having them leaving us such entries in their tablet is very nice to see!
2) He told me that mmcblk0p3 isn't and won't be used by Archos firmware, we're completely free to use it like we want with SDE
3) With this partition, we can do very nice things, see below
Here is what can be done:
1) delete p3 and p4
2) recreate p3 as extended with any size we want
3) recreate p4 with what remains.
4) on extended p3, we can create p5, p6, ...
I did that on mine, I now have a 8 MB p5 for cwmod, a 380M p6 for rootfs+system, without any interference with stock firmware!
If someone wants to experiment with that, few advices:
- Be careful when you re-create p3 and p4, there is an empty space that should remain empty in the partition table (it contains bootloader). So when you recreate p3, you have to use the same start sector as before, not the one proposed by default.
- When you re-create p4, make sure that you use end of p3 + 1 as start for the same reason.
- Don't do fdisk if you have partition mounted, it would confuse kernel and could be dangerous. You need a specific initramfs to be able to do that.
- This is still very dangerous, be warned! invalid partition table and your tablet is toaster. Only change it if you know exactly what you're doing
As a sample, here is my current partition table:
Code:
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7457 MB, 7457472512 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 227584 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 5 1605 51200+ 83 Linux
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 1605 10760 292969+ 83 Linux
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 10760 22967 390625+ 5 Extended
/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 22967 227584 6547764 83 Linux
/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 10760 11004 7813 83 Linux
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 11004 22967 382796+ 83 Linux
------------
Previous text:
Hello All,
As I saw some interest in running firmware directly from ext4 partition, I'd like to share what I found out while I was toying with my tablet:
Having ext4 on gen9 is not as easy as gen8: gen8 has two virtual mmcs on top of a single physical mmc with a split managed at kernel level. So what was done was to reduce storage partition to add ext4 system and/or data partition. More, on gen8, SDE exports storage mmc as a disk to the host allowing resizing partitions in linux for instance.
We can't do that on Gen9: Gen9 has a single physical mmc, part 1 is rawfs, part 2 is system and too short to have unpacked system, part 3 is a very small unused small one, part 4 is data.
On top of part 4, there is an Archos specific trick that remaps /data/media to /storage, explaining why we don't have the same limit on data partition and that /data and /storage are sharing same space. And SDE doesn't export disk.
BIG WARNING BEFORE TRYING ANYTHING: DON'T TOUCH PARTITION 1, NEVER. If partition 1 is trashed or damaged, device is bricked definitively.
So, what is possible is to trash part 2, 3, 4 and re-create a different layout or trash part 4, create two or three extended partitions instead.
If you go option 1, it would have to be done completely from an initrd as you would kill the os you're running on . Option two could be done from adb if Android is properly stopped, but I didn't test it and don't know if kernel and/or Android are behaving well with extended partitions.
Personally, I did it a third way, I modified archos recovery: recovery has a special code that repartition disk if things goes very bad. I changed partition layout builded there, then trashed my partitions and go to recovery to have it re-created. This method has advantages, the partition layout is permanent, meaning that if for some reason I trash one partition it will be re-created with the right size.
However, it has many disadvantages: You have to be able to flash rawfs to be able to flash a recovery, and it's a bit hectic and dangerous to force the partition re-creation. That's why I didn't share it and probably won't as you really need to know what you're doing if you don't want a big brick.
Last thing, I didn't see that much improvement in speed compared to other methods like having a loopback on internal storage, not sure it's really worth the effort and the risks. I did it because I don't like loopbacks, but frankly, having it done safely is much efforts.

Good post.
Thanks for the information

it is great

Hi letama,
interesting thread again
letama said:
Having ext4 on gen9 is not as easy as gen8: gen8 has two virtual mmcs on top of a single physical mmc with a split managed at kernel level. So what was done was to reduce storage partition to add ext4 system and/or data partition. More, on gen8, SDE exports storage mmc as a disk to the host allowing resizing partitions in linux for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing to add...
I found out that a second mbr is placed at the beginning of the "virtual" mmc block device 1. So the internal eMMC chip of the Gen8 devices additionally requires a special layout.
letama said:
We can't do that on Gen9: Gen9 has a single physical mmc, part 1 is rawfs, part 2 is system and too short to have unpacked system, part 3 is a very small unused small one, part 4 is data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going down to hardware level, it seems that Archos went back to use raw NAND flashes instead of eMMC for the Gen9 devices.
I found a FCC document of the Archos 80 G9 showing one 8GByte NAND flash device placed on the mainboard.
Could be a prototype as well...
Additionally it could be possible, that the mtd block layout is already handled inside bootcode.
Anyway, what does a cat /proc/partitions print out?
Regards,
scholbert

/proc/partitions:
Code:
major minor #blocks name
7 0 159412 loop0
179 0 7282688 mmcblk0
179 1 51200 mmcblk0p1
179 2 195359 mmcblk0p2
179 3 7840 mmcblk0p3
179 4 7028160 mmcblk0p4

Hi Scholbert,
scholbert said:
interesting thread again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
scholbert said:
Nothing to add...
I found out that a second mbr is placed at the beginning of the "virtual" mmc block device 1. So the internal eMMC chip of the Gen8 devices additionally requires a special layout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, kind of, it's not really a special layout. From userspace linux point of view, the two virtual mmcs are regular disks, they could be formatted, partitioned, etc.
The mmc driver is doing all the "magic" (mmc_block.split kernel command line parameter):
- for virtual mmc0, virtual sector is mapped to physical sector 0 - split
- for virtual mmc1, virtual sector is mapped to physical sector split - end.
So, the second mbr is coming from a regular disk initialization, nothing special.
scholbert said:
Going down to hardware level, it seems that Archos went back to use raw NAND flashes instead of eMMC for the Gen9 devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're still eMMC afaik.
scholbert said:
Additionally it could be possible, that the mtd block layout is already handled inside bootcode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, gen9 has regular partition scheme, I was able to repartition it without problem... The only difficulty is to do it without killing the device by accident as if you want to keep the 4 partitions layout, you have to kill system and data (and data means also internal storage) partitions, be sure that you don't kill rawfs partition in the process then rebuild them.
Nothing very complicated per se, I would do a ram only initrd with backup of system/data/storage via adb or on microsd. However, as microsd slot is not completely stable for me, the fullly automated option is a bit risky.
My /proc/partitions is this now
Code:
major minor #blocks name
179 0 7282688 mmcblk0
179 1 51200 mmcblk0p1
179 2 439487 mmcblk0p2
179 3 7840 mmcblk0p3
179 4 6784032 mmcblk0p4

Hi Letama,
I see you have modify your part scheme but mmcblk0p2 is your android root part (like loop img) ?
You have rewrite your bootloader ? or just android kernel/initramfs (not SDE kernel/initramfs) ?
Have a nice day !
Thaolia

Hi Tha0lia,
Yes, my p2 is now rootfs+system, it's the content of the img, but directly on the partition, formatted as ext4.
No, it's not the bootloader, bootloader doesn't know anything about partition layout.
Like I explained, I did it by patching the recovery as it will recreate partitions if it detects if a partition is missing. Then, I deleted my system and data partition, rebooted in recovery to have it recreate the whole disk. Last was to modify SDE/Main kernel initrd to mount this partition instead of the loopback device.
You can't do this if you don't have a tool to flash recovery/main kernel. I wrote one, but as it's very dangerous for the tablet, I'm reluctant to let it out.
Back on the subject, this is something that could be done with sde only with a properly written initrd. The only downside is that if for some reason recovery detects a partition problem, it will revert to the old layout, but it should work. The other downside is that "stock boot" on main kernel will only work if you dedicate enough space to hold both the squashfs and the rootfs files. Mine doesn't have too as I modified also stock boot, but again, to do that, you need to flash rawfs init file and special flasher.
I don't have enough time (and energy, enough formats these days ) to do the SDE initrd right now, we'll see if someone takes the baby and if it's really worth it.

Woaw ! Good work ! Thanks for the complementary informations.
So my hack ("abcbox reboot_into -s sde" at boot) is more secure than flash rawfs if i have understood well.
Last question (sry ^^"), but do you have made a serial connection with your tablet for debugging or dev your rawfs flasher ?

letama said:
Well, kind of, it's not really a special layout. From userspace linux point of view, the two virtual mmcs are regular disks, they could be formatted, partitioned, etc.
The mmc driver is doing all the "magic" (mmc_block.split kernel command line parameter):
- for virtual mmc0, virtual sector is mapped to physical sector 0 - split
- for virtual mmc1, virtual sector is mapped to physical sector split - end.
So, the second mbr is coming from a regular disk initialization, nothing special.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah sure, i just wanted to point at that mbr...
letama said:
We're still eMMC afaik.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering the device names it seems eMMC is used, makes sense as this is newer/better technology.
Maybe the FCC doc is of interested.
See attachment... on this device a NAND flash (H27UCG8UDA) is used.
This is definitely raw NAND.
So maybe this is a pre-series model...
letama said:
No, gen9 has regular partition scheme, I was able to repartition it without problem... The only difficulty is to do it without killing the device by accident as if you want to keep the 4 partitions layout, you have to kill system and data (and data means also internal storage) partitions, be sure that you don't kill rawfs partition in the process then rebuild them.
Nothing very complicated per se, I would do a ram only initrd with backup of system/data/storage via adb or on microsd. However, as microsd slot is not completely stable for me, the fullly automated option is a bit risky.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your power supply should be fail-safe at this point
letama said:
My /proc/partitions is this now
Code:
major minor #blocks name
179 0 7282688 mmcblk0
179 1 51200 mmcblk0p1
179 2 439487 mmcblk0p2
179 3 7840 mmcblk0p3
179 4 6784032 mmcblk0p4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah cool stuff... still on my Gen8 though.
Keep on hackin'
scholbert

So my hack ("abcbox reboot_into -s sde" at boot) is more secure than flash rawfs if i have understood well.
Last question (sry ^^"), but do you have made a serial connection with your tablet for debugging or dev your rawfs flasher ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the reboot_into -s sde is a good solution to keep booting on sde...
Unfortunately, no, I don't have serial connection. I'd love to have one, not really for rawfs flashing, it's not that difficult, but more for kernel dev, it would help a lot. But opening stuff and soldering things is not my best skill, I'm a bit reluctant to do it yet, at least without a backup device handy

Hi Scholbert!
scholbert said:
See attachment... on this device a NAND flash (H27UCG8UDA) is used.
This is definitely raw NAND.
So maybe this is a pre-series model...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, maybe... Someday I'll get the courage to open up this thing, I'm sure
scholbert said:
Your power supply should be fail-safe at this point
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Better be!
Well, in fact, it's not such a big deal if it crashes in the middle, recovery will handle partition rebuild, but oups, reformat, flash again stock, re-root, re-enable sde, reflash sde initrd, retry, .... better be.
Yeah cool stuff... still on my Gen8 though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news coming from this front

A little up, I updated first post with some news...

Nice
So what are default (safe) offsets?

gen_scheisskopf said:
Nice
So what are default (safe) offsets?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, don't do anything before end of mmcblk0p2 end block (10760 if you stay in default fdisk mode). Check your partition table before to get the proper value, mine is not a good example as it has been resized before to 300M, normal is 200M.
Basically, get your current mmcblk0p3 start and reuse this number (you may need +1, but fdisk will adjust)

Hey letama,
i'm in with my new A80 G9.
Quite nice device, but also suffering a little on this display issue.
Don't care much because... you may guess it already... i'm going to look inside the next days.
I'm a bit afraid though, because everything is held together with these plastic clamps. Hopefully i'm not gonna break anything.
Anyway a new thread will be born soon and i'll report my findings (boot_mode signals & other stuff ).
Enough small talk...
As you pointed out you are using a real ext4 partition already.
This might be my plan as well, because i don't like this loop mounting on real devices as well.
Yesterday i installed the latest ICS ext4 image file from surdu_petru.
So if i understand it correct this attempt is basically pretty similar to SDE image on Gen8.
If i got it right stock (unrooted squashfs image) and custom (rooted ext4 image) share the same data partition in this case.
What if we reduce size of mmcblk0p4 to increase mmcblk0p3, put our custom rootfs in it as a real filesystem.
Why did you increase mmcblk0p2 instead... in this case we'll have to wipe the stock image completely, right?
So no dual boot anymore...
Could you leave some thoughts on this?
Best regards,
scholbert

Hi Scholbert,
scholbert said:
i'm in with my new A80 G9.
Quite nice device, but also suffering a little on this display issue.
Don't care much because... you may guess it already... i'm going to look inside the next days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool! Nice to have you onboard with g9!
Yesterday i installed the latest ICS ext4 image file from surdu_petru.
So if i understand it correct this attempt is basically pretty similar to SDE image on Gen8.
If i got it right stock (unrooted squashfs image) and custom (rooted ext4 image) share the same data partition in this case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You purchased SD or HD model ?
Anyway, no, on both models, squashfs.secure is on p2 system partition, rooted ext4 is on data on p4 (internal storage is also on data for SD model) .
What if we reduce size of mmcblk0p4 to increase mmcblk0p3, put our custom rootfs in it as a real filesystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I did. You can use p3 as ext4 directly, or you can use p3 as extended and create 3 partitions into this extended partition like I did. Check first post at the top, you'll see that, p3 extended, with p5, p6, p7 (p8 doesn't work). Benefit is that you dual boot on two custom rom and I needed a separate cache partition for clockworkmod recovery.
Why did you increase mmcblk0p2 instead... in this case we'll have to wipe the stock image completely, right?
So no dual boot anymore...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was my first tentative, it was before Archos told me that p3 is for us and that we can do whatever we want with it. As I didn't know that, I didn't touch p3, extended p2, and put both squashfs.secure and my unpacked rooted build on it. Dual boot was working, but it's less elegant than what I currently have.
PS: if you do that, be careful when you reformat p4, you have to leave unused blocks at the end for drm I guess. Check recovery, it has the math.
If you want, I can give you my script to do it. I can even give you my ram only initrd with adb+cwm, you can then umount everything from adb then re-partition and format properly. Without ram only, you won't be able to umount and kernel will not refresh partition table.
PPS: careful with empty space for bootloader

Hey letama!
letama said:
You purchased SD or HD model ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD model, don't like moving parts in mobile devices.
letama said:
Anyway, no, on both models, squashfs.secure is on p2 system partition, rooted ext4 is on data on p4 (internal storage is also on data for SD model) .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah sure... i refered to the loop mount of an ext4 file.
I knew it got stored on p4, so this partition is used for different purpose then and no fat anymore.
letama said:
Yes, that's what I did. You can use p3 as ext4 directly, or you can use p3 as extended and create 3 partitions into this extended partition like I did. Check first post at the top, you'll see that, p3 extended, with p5, p6, p7 (p8 doesn't work). Benefit is that you dual boot on two custom rom and I needed a separate cache partition for clockworkmod recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmmh o.k. tweaking p3 and p4 would be sufficient i guess.
After shrinking p4, it would be a nice idea to use:
p3 = extended
p5 = system
p6 = data (seperated for the custom system)
Some mountpoints will have to be tweaked then...
letama said:
This was my first tentative, it was before Archos told me that p3 is for us and that we can do whatever we want with it. As I didn't know that, I didn't touch p3, extended p2, and put both squashfs.secure and my unpacked rooted build on it. Dual boot was working, but it's less elegant than what I currently have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
O.k. got it. I agree that p3 is a gift.
letama said:
PS: if you do that, be careful when you reformat p4, you have to leave unused blocks at the end for drm I guess. Check recovery, it has the math.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the hint, i'll step through the scripts first
letama said:
If you want, I can give you my script to do it. I can even give you my ram only initrd with adb+cwm, you can then umount everything from adb then re-partition and format properly. Without ram only, you won't be able to umount and kernel will not refresh partition table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would be helpful indeed, thanks a lot for offering need my mail address.
May send you a PM.
letama said:
PPS: careful with empty space for bootloader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the warning but i'm aware of this Archos specialty.
Best regards,
scholbert

scholbert said:
Mmmh o.k. tweaking p3 and p4 would be sufficient i guess.
After shrinking p4, it would be a nice idea to use:
p3 = extended
p5 = system
p6 = data (seperated for the custom system)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget about /cache- CWM needs it.
Or /cache as ramdisk?
scholbert said:
Some mountpoints will have to be tweaked then...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only in kernel init, stock recovery won't touch p3 and p5-7 unless partition table would have to be rebuild (BTW- in ICS p2 size is increased from 200 to 300 MB)

gen_scheisskopf said:
Don't forget about /cache- CWM needs it.
Or /cache as ramdisk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah maybe better preserve some additional bytes.
Tough i won't use CWM for now.
gen_scheisskopf said:
Only in kernel init, stock recovery won't touch p3 and p5-7 unless partition table would have to be rebuild (BTW- in ICS p2 size is increased from 200 to 300 MB)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
O.K. i see...
Interesting fact about p2.
To my surprise i'm still on ~200MB for p2 while running ICS on my pad.
The console gives me disk usage of 94% for p2 though.
Did it like this:
- my device came with HC installed
- used the temp root
- activated SDE by flashing letama's kernel and initramfs
- removed temp root
- rebooted into recovery
- removed stock HC, by wiping all related partitions
- installed stock ICS from recovery
- booted into stock ICS
- transfered rooted ICS ext4 image to p4
- rebooted to recovery
- used developer edition menu to reflashed the related kernel and initramfs
In the end i got dual-boot via recovery... stock and custom rooted
Something to be afraid of?
Regards,
scholbert

[Q] SWAP PArtition

1st question :I have created a swap partition according to one of the tutorials here. But when i do the swapon command it says No such device or adress any solutions ?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=21718735
2nd question: After i rebooted the phone i use alfs kernel and gingerdx25 , the telephone is stuck jsut after i input my pin it enters the gingerdx amd thamn its stuck it becoems really laggy and than i reboots... this happens every time i boot it since my last restart it cant boot sometimes it stucks at infinity boot loop even if i delete the cache . Like there is 100% cpu usage so much lag... i cant even open the menu and than i t reboots

Hi there, it seem like you activate Comp-cache with swap right?
if you do that, you'll likely need to remove the swap partition OR Wipe your data & disable comp-cache

one more question mate . I reisntalled the android but due to some reason when i try to instlal an application the phone restarts any ideas ? :S

it mean that the app you tried to install is existed but only the data....
so, when u try to install it again, it will lead to reboot...
try clear out the data or do full-wipe

CKKnot said:
it mean that the app you tried to install is existed but only the data....
so, when u try to install it again, it will lead to reboot...
try clear out the data or do full-wipe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
once again i hit the thanks button really thank you. But something now screwed up. When i inert my 8gb sd card it doesnt recognise taht i have even put in a card.Nothing happens like there is no sdcard.I tried to format it but it says taht there is nosd card and when i put my opther one which i do not use 2gb card it recognises it i think my 8gb card is bugged :S

nah, if you had't partition it well, it will buggy. Try copy all ur data to pc & wipe disk & copy back. Hope that solve ur problem

CKKnot said:
nah, if you had't partition it well, it will buggy. Try copy all ur data to pc & wipe disk & copy back. Hope that solve ur problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think my 8gbSanDisc is bricked forever. Its not recognised either on pc or on the telephone.Like there is no card i cant format it ....

if at partition wizard display it as a bad disk, i afraid that your sdcard is utterly damaged
be sure to own a lifetime warranty sdcard if using swap.(well, lifetime doesn't mean it last forever also.) you can instead use comp-cache as substitute method

CKKnot said:
if at partition wizard display it as a bad disk, i afraid that your sdcard is utterly damaged
be sure to own a lifetime warranty sdcard if using swap.(well, lifetime doesn't mean it last forever also.) you can instead use comp-cache as substitute method
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried several partition wizards and they dont regognise the card like there is no card...

it is damaged

CKKnot said:
if at partition wizard display it as a bad disk, i afraid that your sdcard is utterly damaged
be sure to own a lifetime warranty sdcard if using swap.(well, lifetime doesn't mean it last forever also.) you can instead use comp-cache as substitute method
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st question :I have created a swap partition according to one of the tutorials here. But when i do the swapon command it says No such device or adress any solutions ?

have you tried:
swapon /dev/mmcblk0p3
mmcblk0p3
blk0 mean block 0
p3 mean partition 3
Edited ----- My Bad

CKKnot said:
have you tried:
swapon /dev/mmcblock0p3
mmcblock0p3
block0 mean block 0
p3 mean partition 3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
new problem now sd cardi s accessed and formatted by the phone but when i put hte usb cable it says it must be formatted (windwos says this) and if i format it in fat32 its unreadable by the phone anymore...And yes the problem was mispartitioning the sd card wasnt fried

okay first of all, most user wanna configure his sdcard partition in this way.
[FAT32][EXT2][SWAP] - (This is what i configured now.)
[FAT32] is for normal sdcard file system which you can access it from your pc also
[EXT2] is where the partition of sdcard store your app (.apk) and dalvik-cache (Depend on the rom.)
[SWAP] is where the partition is assigned as swap memory.
all of those partition must be primary and in order. [FAT32] can have a drive letter where other's can't have it.

CKKnot said:
okay first of all, most user wanna configure his sdcard partition in this way.
[FAT32][EXT2][SWAP] - (This is what i configured now.)
[FAT32] is for normal sdcard file system which you can access it from your pc also
[EXT2] is where the partition of sdcard store your app (.apk) and dalvik-cache (Depend on the rom.)
[SWAP] is where the partition is assigned as swap memory.
all of those partition must be primary and in order. [FAT32] can have a drive letter where other's can't have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cant i make swap memory by making swap file because it doesnt work with swap partition

can, but it will reduce it's performance.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb shell
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
~ # fdisk -l dev/block/mmcblk0
fdisk -l dev/block/mmcblk0
Disk dev/block/mmcblk0: 7948 MB, 7948206080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 966 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
dev/block/mmcblk0p1 * 1 777 6240228+ c Win95 FAT32 (
)
dev/block/mmcblk0p2 778 833 449820 82 Linux swap
dev/block/mmcblk0p3 834 966 1068322+ 83 Linux
~ # swapon /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
swapon /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
swapon: /dev/block/mmcblk0p2: No such device or address
~ # swapon /dev/mmcblk0p2
swapon /dev/mmcblk0p2
swapon: can't stat '/dev/mmcblk0p2': No such file or directory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here is my output

recreate your partition into
[FAT32] [EXT2] [SWAP]
most rom will search the third partition as their swap partition. i recommend you to use partition wizard to do it

CKKnot said:
recreate your partition into
[FAT32] [EXT2] [SWAP]
most rom will search the third partition as their swap partition. i recommend you to use partition wizard to do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did it i have 3 partitions fat , ext2,swap

You need to mount the partition before using swapon.If you add this line to system/etc/fstab the rom will mount it for you at boot.
Code:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /swap swap rw

Recover a dead emmc?

Hello guys, I am running Android off SdCard because my HD+ has a dead emmc, I recently discovered that I can read and write to it using root explorer, does that mean that there's a chance that I could somehow recover it?

mmk92 said:
Hello guys, I am running Android off SdCard because my HD+ has a dead emmc, I recently discovered that I can read and write to it using root explorer, does that mean that there's a chance that I could somehow recover it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how can you access your emmc? the (emmc-less) rom that verygreen made used our sdcards as the emmc I think that what you are seeing is a portion of your sdcard not your emmc

Hello,
I've seen your other thread here at XDA, and I'm not trying to be offensive, but I think you maybe confused with EMMC, Pure SD install and the term "dead EMMC". Apologies I didn't reply to your other thread earlier; I did/do not have much time. Please note, I do not indent to be offensive at all, just trying to put facts together; to hopefully ease you to achieve your solution.
For starters, I don't think your EMMC is "dead"; else you would have a difficult time booting your tablet up (I'd be surprised if a Nook turned on with a dead EMMC), even if you're purely installed on an SD card. Personally what I think is going on, you stated in the other thread your friend gave you this Nook. Your friend thought he (assuming he's male) could install CyanogenMod on his Nook, but unfortunately he couldn't. Effectively, he thought he had "bricked" or damaged his Nook; at this point it was not working the way he intended, and couldn't boot into CyanogenMod. He turned to you for help, or you stepped in, as your more "technical" with this stuff. Of course, I could be wrong. You knew you wouldn't be able to fix this, but you could use an alternative way to boot CyanogenMod; using only a SD card.
Not bad idea, but I'm quite confident that your EMMC is not "dead" and that you can install CyanogenMod on your internal storage without a SD card being required for boot. Apologies if my assumptions contain mistakes, I only completed reading the thread after posting the above.
I was going to post some suggestions and write up some guides, but before I do, please may I ask a question? You said you're using Root Explorer? Where is this? On your stock ROM on internal/EMMC, on a CyanogenMod build on EMMC, or on Pure SD? If you're booting using purely a SD card, and have Root Explorer running, you can edit files because it's editing files on your SD card, not your EMMC (although it may say internal, a pure SD install "emulates" the internal storage).
Again, please reply with the answer(s). I'll do my best to assist. Also, just a quick note; it's not necessary to make two threads. You could have still used your earlier thread.

HiddenG said:
Hello,
I've seen your other thread here at XDA, and I'm not trying to be offensive, but I think you maybe confused with EMMC, Pure SD install and the term "dead EMMC". Apologies I didn't reply to your other thread earlier; I did/do not have much time. Please note, I do not indent to be offensive at all, just trying to put facts together; to hopefully ease you to achieve your solution.
For starters, I don't think your EMMC is "dead"; else you would have a difficult time booting your tablet up (I'd be surprised if a Nook turned on with a dead EMMC), even if you're purely installed on an SD card. Personally what I think is going on, you stated in the other thread your friend gave you this Nook. Your friend thought he (assuming he's male) could install CyanogenMod on his Nook, but unfortunately he couldn't. Effectively, he thought he had "bricked" or damaged his Nook; at this point it was not working the way he intended, and couldn't boot into CyanogenMod. He turned to you for help, or you stepped in, as your more "technical" with this stuff. Of course, I could be wrong. You knew you wouldn't be able to fix this, but you could use an alternative way to boot CyanogenMod; using only a SD card.
Not bad idea, but I'm quite confident that your EMMC is not "dead" and that you can install CyanogenMod on your internal storage without a SD card being required for boot. Apologies if my assumptions contain mistakes, I only completed reading the thread after posting the above.
I was going to post some suggestions and write up some guides, but before I do, please may I ask a question? You said you're using Root Explorer? Where is this? On your stock ROM on internal/EMMC, on a CyanogenMod build on EMMC, or on Pure SD? If you're booting using purely a SD card, and have Root Explorer running, you can edit files because it's editing files on your SD card, not your EMMC (although it may say internal, a pure SD install "emulates" the internal storage).
Again, please reply with the answer(s). I'll do my best to assist. Also, just a quick note; it's not necessary to make two threads. You could have still used your earlier thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are quite wrong.The lagfix app bug actually does kill the emmc what hes using is an emmc-less rom that verygreen created for all the users who were affected by the emmc bug. This rom doesnot use the emmc at all it treats the sdcard as the emmc

Ahh, no problem. Thank you Talha, that cleared a few things for me. Haha, I've been missing from the latest developments on the Nook's.
Still, I hold my statement in this case, as the OP stated he can boot into EMMC recovery (source). So the EMMC is not dead.

Thank you guys for the replies!
I am accessing the emmcs through Root explorer on a nonemmc ROM, so I could be accessing the SD card itself, makes perfect sense.
But if i boot up my tablet without an sd card, it goes to the internal EMMC recovery, in that recovery I can access the SD card, but can't mount the emmc itself. (it says E: error can't mount /emmc/
This is weird because I've always though the recovery and ROM resie on the emmc.
Please pardon my ignorance guys.

mmk92 said:
Thank you guys for the replies!
I am accessing the emmcs through Root explorer on a nonemmc ROM, so I could be accessing the SD card itself, makes perfect sense.
But if i boot up my tablet without an sd card, it goes to the internal EMMC recovery, in that recovery I can access the SD card, but can't mount the emmc itself. (it says E: error can't mount /emmc/
This is weird because I've always though the recovery and ROM resie on the emmc.
Please pardon my ignorance guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, haha. Is the recovery on your EMMC ClockWorkMod or TeamWin Recovery? If either of these, and you can boot into them; then may be I have a solution for you. Please let me know.
Also, have you tried flashing a ROM using your EMMC recovery? I'm pretty sure you have, and I'm assuming an error was presented? Let me know.

Without an sd card inside the Nook, it boots straight to CWM recovery. I tried flashing " cm-10.2-20131207-NIGHTLY-ovation.zip" first it gave me "E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_install E: failed to open last_install: no such directory or file" then it started running then it gave me a (status 0) error and then eventually aborting. I tried flashing the TWR, reports the same "last_install"errors like the ROM flash, then it finished really fast(around a second) reports a "Done..! Install from sdcard complete." but changes absolutely nothing (if i restart it goes back to CWM).

mmk92 said:
Without an sd card inside the Nook, it boots straight to CWM recovery. I tried flashing " cm-10.2-20131207-NIGHTLY-ovation.zip" first it gave me "E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_install E: failed to open last_install: no such directory or file" then it started running then it gave me a (status 0) error and then eventually aborting. I tried flashing the TWR, reports the same "last_install"errors like the ROM flash, then it finished really fast(around a second) reports a "Done..! Install from sdcard complete." but changes absolutely nothing (if i restart it goes back to CWM).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that your emmc is working but your partitions are broken

So there's hope? What do you guys suggest I do

mmk92 said:
So there's hope? What do you guys suggest I do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible that your emmc is readable, but not writeable. I had an SD where that happened. It would act like it was writing and the PC would say successful, but when I ejected the SD and reinserted, it has not changed. Nothing I could do would revive the SD. I had to throw it away.
I suggest you use your noemmc ROM to explore emmc to see if you can change anything and have it stick after a reboot.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app

Bits in SD cards have a certain lifespan, I believe between 10k-100k read/writes until they become unwritable. Some generic/defective cards have much less. So in your case it could've been an old/cheap brand SD card that happened to die. Although the eMMC shares these drawbacks, it has a much longer lifespan, and I highly doubt this the issue for the emmc.

I attached to this post a dump of logs that I have collected from my Nook. I see a bunch of "unknown partition table" in there, so could that be the problem? Does that mean that a partition fix should solve my problem?(I've read about lots of devices revived from broken partition tables).
What if this is the issue for most people and not a dead eMMC chip? If this theory proves to be true maybe many nooks will be brought back from the dead.
It's times like these that I wish that I was more experienced with such low level stuff I barely know the terminology so again, please ignore my ignorance.

Sorry for the mult-posts, why did you leave meeh out to dry I am willing to try anything on my Nook if it has a chance to get back to life.

mmk92 said:
Sorry for the mult-posts, why did you leave meeh out to dry I am willing to try anything on my Nook if it has a chance to get back to life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is yours like this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=44842492&highlight=partition#post44842492
Sent from HD+ MAG2GA CM 10.2 from SD

I get no output for the command dmesg|grep mmc1 nor dmesg|grep mmcblk1
I do however get response from dmesg|mmcblk0
~ # dmesg|grep mmcblk1
dmesg|grep mmcblk1
~ # dmesg|grep mmcblk0
dmesg|grep mmcblk0
<6>[ 3.039337] mmcblk0: mmc0:0001 MAG2GA 14.5 GiB
<6>[ 3.039611] mmcblk0boot0: mmc0:0001 MAG2GA partition 1 2.00 MiB
<6>[ 3.039825] mmcblk0boot1: mmc0:0001 MAG2GA partition 2 2.00 MiB
<6>[ 3.040649] mmcblk0: unknown partition table
<6>[ 3.041839] mmcblk0boot1: unknown partition table
<6>[ 3.042846] mmcblk0boot0: unknown partition table
~ #
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

mmk92 said:
I get no output for the command dmesg|grep mmc1 nor dmesg|grep mmcblk1
I do however get response from dmesg|mmcblk0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 1 applies when booted from the noemmc sdcard.
Here's another possibly helpful post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=44887350
Sent from HD+ MAG2GA CM 10.2 from SD

~ # mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Could not stat /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache --- No such f
ile or directory
The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?
~ # mount .cache
mount .cache
mount: can't find .cache in /etc/fstab
~ # mount /cache
mount /cache
mount: mounting /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache on /cache fa
iled: No such file or directory
~ # mount /cache
mount /cache
mount: mounting /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache on /cache fa
iled: No such file or directory
~ # mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Could not stat /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache --- No such f
ile or directory
The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?
~ # mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Could not stat /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache --- No such f
ile or directory
The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?
~ #
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get the "Could not stat /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache --- No such f
ile or directory" on every run.
Also tried flashing Stock from all recoveries, still no change

mmk92 said:
I get the "Could not stat /dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/cache --- No such f
ile or directory" on every run.
Also tried flashing Stock from all recoveries, still no change
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a link for recreating the partition table http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=44620340&highlight=table#post44620340
Sent from HD+ MAG2GA CM 10.2 from SD

I got this interesting message when I executed print in parted.
Warning: /dev/block/mmcblk0 contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a
GPT table. However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it
should. Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't
understand GPT partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are
now using an msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table?
Yes/No? yes
yes
yes
Model: MMC MAG2GA (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 30535680s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 256s 511s 256s xloader
2 512s 1023s 512s bootloader
3 1024s 31743s 30720s recovery
4 32768s 65535s 32768s boot
5 65536s 163839s 98304s fat32 rom
6 163840s 262143s 98304s fat32 bootdata
7 262144s 1179647s 917504s ext4 factory
8 1179648s 2555903s 1376256s ext4 system
9 2555904s 3506175s 950272s ext4 cache
10 3506176s 30507007s 27000832s ext4 userdata
(parted)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also the partitions seem intact, what do you suggest I do?