I just flashed CM6RC3. A few days ago my sd card received errors so I ended up formatting it. While doing this I stumbled upon the SD partition options in rom manager and ra.
So I set them 32mb swap, 512mb ext3, rest fat32 (16gb card).
When I install apps and use App2SD I don't see much of a benefit since the apps are just moved to the fat32 partition. And not all apps support being moved.
Am I correct in these assumptions? Or am I missing something?
Exactly what and how does the ext3 partition do for my android?
You can use alternative Apps2SD and move all your apps to the ext3 partition.
In that case, your widgets can also be moved, and your apps won't be terminated when you mount your phone as USB drive.
should i be using ext3 or 4?
do i need swap at all? i've search and found contradicting posts
Related
Hi,
I was not able to find the reason behind partitioning the sdcard for nexus one.
I have just installed the CM 5.0.6 but I do not know whether I should parition the sd card or not.
Thanks.
You should just partition the SD card if you want apps2sd, or debian.
Why? Because it's formated as a single FAT32 volume by default, basically to store all your stuff (media, pics, data, etc...), but if you want Android to use it (linux, basically) you have to partition it and format your new partition as extX.
Hope it helped.
you don't have to partition. but, it allows you to do things like install apps to your sd card since the n1 doesn't have much available space to begin with.
I am totally baffled by this. I've had a2sd working once before, but this time it just won't work. I flashed cyanogen 6.1.1 for my phone, Nexus One, and added google apps by flashing that too, and the rom works fine.
I have partitioned my SD card with 30gb FAT, 1.1gb ext3, 60mb swap and the rest free. I then flashed darktremor. Now, when I open titanium backup pro, I see the bar for a2sd showing free space, and it says 152mb total, 20.2mb free.
Why do I not have the full size of my ext3 partition available?
What can I do to fix this?
Thanks guys
I have the same problem! Before starting a new thread I thought of posting it here,
I partitioned SD with Amon RA recovery (2.0.1) first with EXT2 and converted to EXT3
I have similar amount of memory, 138mb ! Isnt the partition made with recovery detected by the ROM?
Details : Fat32 3.5GB, EXT3 512MB
Look HERE the internal memory doesnt show the memory in the EXT partition. But apps get installed in there when you install them normally. Just check if your A2SD+ is working by the Quick System Info market app.
I read the whole thread A-Z, I suggest newbies do the same to get an understanding.
EDIT: DATA2SD shows this as the internal memory!
So i used to have all my apps on my ext filesystem on my sd card on my mytouch 3g 32B. Recently i wiped and upgraded to cyanogen mod 6.1 and also wiped ext filesystem. I used titanium backup to restore all my apps but they are on my internal phone storage now. Is there a way to move them all to my ext partition on my sd card without having to reinstall them all. also i dont want it on my fat partition i need them to be in the ext partition thank you!
Use a a2sd script? And terminal to move Them to ext
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
are you talking about firerats patch?
Yeah, but i dont know how it works on mt3g
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
but i thought a2sd moves only from the fat partition to ext? does it also go from internal phone storage to ext filesystem?
Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition and a secondary ext partition. ext is just a filesystem, like FAT32, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally.
Apps2SD then runs a script on your phone which symbolically links the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card.
Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card
in otherwords as LIL is saying. yes it moves apps from phone to sd card like the older roms did
I thought I was at least a little savvy about this stuff but I'm feeling a bit noobish. I have a SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 running Cognition 3.04 with the default Cog kernel and modem. This evening I was messing around with Clockworkmod and did the "Partition SD Card" option (512M ext, 32M swap) thinking this was going to partition my external (4 gig) sdcard. Instead, it appears that CWM actually partitioned the internal (16 gig) sdcard. Best I can tell it created a root partition using ext3 or similar fs and then formatted the remainder of the card as vfat. So, this leaves me with two questions?
1. What is the value of this? Obviously I'm not gaining any storage just by splitting up the internal card, and I would assume the downside is this limits the amount of apps I can install to the space on the root partition?
2) What's the easiest way to get back to single partition? I have CWM and TBU backups prior to formatting and run linux on my home desktop.
Thanks.
bump.. anyone?
I believe this is if you wanted to have APPS2SD if your internal ROM is full for apps. This way you could install apps on your internal SD card by fooling the OS into thinking the ext partition on your sd card part of your ROM.
At least this is what formatting the SD card with an ext partition was for on my previous android.
Ive personally never used APPS2SD because it just seemed more trouble if anything but this is an option for those who fill up the 2GB of ROM space that i believe android alots.
Hopefully that helped you out.
Hello, I'm hoping someone can answer a few questions I have regarding the format of the SD Card for the Android system. - Apologies if this has already been explained on this forum, I did a search but didn't find anything too useful that answered my questions.
(I have knowledge of the linux file-system and swap drives, just unsure of the benifits of this for android).
Currently using a 16GB SanDisk Class4 SD Card.
I'm aware that you can format the SD Card to use as a swap-drive and for use of ext2 file-system.
While searching for info on this I found the following xda link which simply explains how to do this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/SD_card_partitioning
My questions are:
1. What are the benifits of having the ext2 file-system? (Would apps stored on SD Card run faster etc?)
2. Do I need to keep a FAT32 partition (as opposed to just having a swap and ext2 partitions without any FAT partition).
3. Does the swap drive greatly improve performance. And is this worth doing on a Class4 SD Card?
Thanks in advance!
Hi.
at the first I must say swat will decrease SD card life.
i recommond you to create EXT3 or EXT4 partition.
1)one of the benefit of EXT partition is your phone storage will not full and its help your phone performance.
2)yes.of course you should have fat32 partition for eg:music-movies...and other files.
3)yes.swap is a very good.and it helps your phone ram.eg:when you play plants vs zombie at the first screen game will exit because of ram and swap will use like ram and its good for gaming.
Thanks for the reply, much apprecaited.
Are you sure I need a FAT32 partition though? Videos, music etc etc can all be saved to ext2/3/4 on a linux OS so I just assumed I could just do away with FAT32 all together?
Is the following just not the same as using an App2SD app?
"1)one of the benefit of EXT partition is your phone storage will not full and its help your phone performance."
Sorry for being a bit fussy but I'd like to fully understand what the Ext/2/3/4 partition is actually used for. Is it just used purely for storage?
Thanks again!
In a short summary (and assuming you are using a Kernel and ROM supporting the features) ...
- "Swap" on a swap partition has its own own "filesystem". The data structures are actually created by "mkswap" and the partition is not directly accessible by the user. If your phone runs low on physical memory unused parts of the memory will be swapped out into the virtual memory to make room for other apps.
Note that this is no "magically increase your RAM" solution. Once swapping occurs it actually slows down the system as the swapped out memory regions need to be copied back into physical memory, sooner or later. It may only help to run "RAM hungry" applications.
- "SD-Ext" is a, most likely, ext2 formatted partition to where Apps you move to the SD (either by Android or App2SD) will go. This increases the amount of apps you can possibly install, but doesn't resolve the problem that apps having widgets or apps that are started during Android boot-up need to reside in the internal phone memory.
- The /sdcard partition where all your user data is being stored should be kept FAT32 (for the simple reason of making a backup of your data by slapping the card into card reader easier - Windows can't read Linux filesystems by default). Some ROMs will allow you to format /sdcard ext3 or ext4 ... the advantage is that ext3/4 (if the mount options are correctly set) may perform a lot better than FAT32, though your mileage may vary.
Roger? ...or do is something still unclear?
Many thanks B.Jay - I'll hit the thanks button after I post this reply! You cleared up all my questions, but just going back to the FAT32 partition;
I use linux as my main OS, so accessing the EXT format partition wouldn't be a problem; Do you know if all ROMs would work without a FAT32 partition and replace it with EXT2/3/4 partition? If you're unsure I can always find out by formatting and loading a rom.
Thanks again, you've been most helpful!
Agenty1609 said:
going back to the FAT32 partition;
I use linux as my main OS, so accessing the EXT format partition wouldn't be a problem; Do you know if all ROMs would work without a FAT32 partition and replace it with EXT2/3/4 partition? If you're unsure I can always find out by formatting and loading a rom.
Thanks again, you've been most helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linux would, of course, be able to mount a ext partition (even on a SD card put into a card reader).
As for the ROM ... it depends.
The Stock Kernel Modules AddOn of GingerDX introduces ext3 and ext4 modules for the SEMC Stock Kernel, so in theory (I didn't test it!) you should be able to access /sdcard when being formatted ext3/4 - though it could be that you might need to adjust the vold script to properly mount the partition. The modules are mainly for supporting the sd-ext partition for "Apps-to-ext3/4-partition-on-mSD".
There's also alfsamsung's Alfs Kernel which is compatible with GingerDX and some other ROMs. That would be something you could try as well.
Simply look through the ROM threads ... I think MiniCM7 (+nAa's Kernel) should be able to support it, though this could involve some tinkering.
Personally speaking, I only have a ~2GB sd-ext on the SD in my X8 and the rest is a normal FAT32 partition (/sdcard).
yes you need a FAT32 partition.
when you partition your SD card you can move moveable app and games to ext partition.
please dont move app wich they cant move to ext partition.
cause after restart app that you moved to ext will corrupted.
good luck.
Thanks again! I think I'll follow your trend and try the 2GB SD-ext and the rest FAT32.
sd-ext missing!!
hey guys!! I've a small prob, would appreciate some tips. I normally move apps to sd card, if the app is movable by default. if the app is not movable by default, i use this app2sd by droidsail (available in the market) which force moves parts of the app 2 sd card. When I make back ups using xrecovery, i have no problem.
but when I use cwm for back ups, it gives an error saying sd-ext not found and it skips that part of the back up!! so any app I've moved by default or forced moved to sd card doesn't get backed up!! So I presume I have to create a sd-ext partition manually? How do I do it? I do have an sd-ext folder. but its not in sd card. it's in the root. (never had this prob with xrecovery though)
thanks in advance!!
neo_na said:
hey guys!! I've a small prob, would appreciate some tips. I normally move apps to sd card, if the app is movable by default. if the app is not movable by default, i use this app2sd by droidsail (available in the market) which force moves parts of the app 2 sd card. When I make back ups using xrecovery, i have no problem.
but when I use cwm for back ups, it gives an error saying sd-ext not found and it skips that part of the back up!! so any app I've moved by default or forced moved to sd card doesn't get backed up!! So I presume I have to create a sd-ext partition manually? How do I do it? I do have an sd-ext folder. but its not in sd card. it's in the root. (never had this prob with xrecovery though)
thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of CWM would that be?
Saipro said:
Which version of CWM would that be?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's cwm 4.0.1.5