Database Develop

How to specify custom partition layouts?

I just saw an interesting thread in the development section that explains an alternative to the Death SPL. The method there lets you flash ANY rom on any SPL, but I dont really understand how it works.
The thread can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=704560
So basically, you shrink the cache partition to allow for more room for the actual ROM(which partition does that go in?)?
To do this do we edit the boot.img in the ROM update.zip? What else do we do?
Could someone explain this in a way a 9th grader could understand?

kingkurry said:
Could someone explain this in a way a 9th grader could understand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take file by firerat, flash file. omgroflpartitons.
If you don't understand the instructions as they are, wait for it to be perfected before you try anything. This will probably end up being integrated into releases that need it, so you don't need to worry about the specifics at the moment.

Will that patch file work for all ROMs. He said its only been tested with CyanogenMod 5. And I want to understand what im doing, not just do it without thinking about it...

Also, does the recovery patcher decrease the size of the partition that holds the recovery image?
Does it permanently change the size of the recovery partition?
When you flash a ROM, what partition is it being flashed too? Is this the one being increased in size?
What does the boot.img in an update.zip package hold, and is that copied to the boot partition?
Sorry but my curiosity is killing me

OK well to break it down we have 6 partitions on the internal memory:
Misc - Here be dragons
Recovery - Contains recovery system (+seperate recovery kernel) - recovery.img lives here
Boot - Contains kernel & important initialization stuff - boot.img lives here
-------------
System - Contains the whole android system (the "ROM", if you like).. everything else from an update.zip apart from the boot.img
Cache - Used by system and recovery for temporary storage
Userdata - Contains all personal data, downloaded apps, settings etc.
The first three partitions must be left at the default size so don't worry about them.
What this patch does is pass a command to the kernel which remaps the 3 large partitions at boot time. Since we're flashing system images from recovery, we also need to pass the same command to the recovery kernel before attempting to flash the main system, or we'd be writing to one place then telling the kernel to look for it in another.. bad idea.
This method allows any partition setup you like, but the most useful at the moment (and this is the way firerat has set up his scripts to suit cm5) is to make the /system partition just the right size for the "ROM" with a bit of breathing space, make the /cache partition a minimal size for the recovery system to use, then have /userdata fill the remaining space so we can load it up with apps. Since we've reduced cache to a minimal size, it's redirected at boot time to a place on the sdcard instead.. this give us maximum space to divide between /system and /data with no wastage.
Does that help at all..?

Thanks dude. That does help a lot.
Just wondering though, how much breathing space do u need in the system partition?
What does the recovery system use the cache partition for and how do we know what "a minimal size for the recovery system to use" is?
Is it possible to reduce the userdata partition to the minimum possible size a partition can be(if i recall correctly it was 128kb) and use an ext partition on your SD card instead?
If we shrink the Cache partition a lot, does this mean we have to use linux swap to compensate for the lowered amount of cache?
Also do we have to remap the partitions every time we flash a new ROM?
And what are the "dragons"?

kingkurry said:
And what are the "dragons"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's saying that it's just there. There could be anything from nothing there to a text document containing the ingredients to the cure of AIDs.

Well what about every thing else? Can you guys help me with that? Also what is the total size of all 3 of the big partitions combined?

[Q] EXT4 and stock froyo?

Hello. I've tried flashing some kernels for my stock rom, but ended up stuck on lg boot logo. The kernels converted my filesystem to ext4. After i get stuck, i tried to recover my backup of stock rom, but no success - after recovering, it got stucked on lg logo with loading. Is it because that EXT4 thing? I got pissed, and ended up installing CM7, which i don't like, but i have no choice - otherwise i can't use my phone. I really want to go back to stock, so if i use BacktoEXT3 to my phone (which converts the filesystem to ext3), can i recover my stock rom successfully? Of course something may be wrong with the backup (before i recovered it successfully though), so can i just download some EuroOpen rom(v10b), and flash it through CWM? Thanks very much in advance.

If you use back2ext3, it will obliterate your data on all partitions so you'll have to start from scratch. What does exist, though, is a CWM zip that will fix a kernel for EXT4 use. You'd have to find it though, it's on here somewhere.

Rusty! said:
If you use back2ext3, it will obliterate your data on all partitions so you'll have to start from scratch. What does exist, though, is a CWM zip that will fix a kernel for EXT4 use. You'd have to find it though, it's on here somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back2Ext3 will not delete my internal sd card contents right? (cwm is in there)
With restore, i'll get the partitions back, so no problem use back2ext3 then, right?
-flash back2ext3
-restore stock froyo v10b
-happy face
can i make this?

martinesko36 said:
Back2Ext3 will not delete my internal sd card contents right? (cwm is in there)
With restore, i'll get the partitions back, so no problem use back2ext3 then, right?
-flash back2ext3
-restore stock froyo v10b
-happy face
can i make this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct on all accounts. Happy face.

Yeah try it and share results

[Q] STUCK A

got my nexus one week back.its rooted .it has rapassion recovery 2.2.1 and HBOOT v0.35.0017.i wated to try my hands on flashing.so i downloaded [ROM][2.1+3.0/2.3.3] Rev0lutioN v2.8 followed the steps wiped data,done partition swap size 0 and ext 1 1024 mb ,selct ext2 ext2,then ext3 ext 4.then flashed the rom from sd card .but on rebooting it is stuck @ NEXUS ONE X IMAGE .pls show me some way to flash sucessfully i can get back to that fastboot,recovery etc page by volume down and power button

i would dl this to sdcard and flash a couple times thru recovery before flashing rom. wipe dalvik and battery/rotation settings too
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28338566/Extreme-wipe.zip
not wiping system can cause issues
assume you met ALL other rom requirements
also i don't reformat sdcard while in phone--use sdformatter
the first thing i do when i get stuck is pull battery and reboot--not sure if you tried that

thanks..i will try that...does it matter well i was trying to flash nand version may be that caused problem..one more help can u pls guide me to how to do 1gb ext4 partiton..or sugget me some stable sense version for nexus i can flash easily

if you are new as indicated by one week ownership, i would start out with cm7 stable roms from android development section
use the system wipe zip i provided
sounds like your card is already partitioned
best thing to do is read up in wiki and as much of rom thread you are going to flash, the op page has good info and i usually read last few dozen pages
if you flashed nand version, assume you flashed blackrose hboot and repartitioned
hboot to recommended sizes per op page link, if you did you will have to go back to stock hboot to flash cm7 or try sd version of rev rom
i had surgery and not feeling well tonite, let someone else come along to add to my posts
ken

feeling a bit better, here is quick answer
backup sdcard
i use sdformatter to format outside phone--full erase and size adj on
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28338566/SDFormatter 2.0.mht
this ensures card is fully formatted--phone just does quicky
then put card back in phone and use amon ra to repartition card to 1gb ext 4 0 swap
seems you did those steps already
then copy sdcard data back to phone

CM7/Zeus v7 alongside any rom with GB bootloader and CM7 alongside v28a

CM7/Zeus v7alongside any rom with GB bootloader and CM7 alongside v28a
Hi!This is my"how to" for installing two roms on one OB.
1.We need to partition sdcard
partition #1 : format it to fat(will be used as sdcard)
partition #2 : format it to ext4(will be used as system of zeus and must be at least 320 MB)
partition #3 : format it to ext4(will be used as data of zeus and must be at least 400 MB)
2.Now if u want:
1.Zeus flash this
2.cm7 flash this
(DO NOT FORGET TO PUT YOUR INTERNAL ROM`S KERNEL TO /sdcard/boot/ and name it nandboot.img!)
3.cm7 alongside v28a flash first this, then flash v28a with SFT, then root your v28a and after that put files from this bin.zip to the /system/bin
3.Now if u want to boot:
1.Zeus type in the terminal
Code:
su
bootzeus
2.cm7 type in the terminal
Code:
su
bootcm7
3.v28c ICS
Code:
su
bootsd
4.your nand rom
Code:
su
bootnand
NOTE:If u change your nand rom first install your new rom and after that copy your new rom's boot.img and put it to /sdcard/boot.img and after that rename it to nandboot.img and after all this install this if your sdrom is cm7 and if Zeus this
Now partition table is:
Code:
Zeus/CM7/v28c ICS
system /dev/block/mmcblk1p2
data /dev/block/mmcblk1p3
CM10
system /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
data /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
YouTube

suleymanovemil8 said:
Hi!So is it possible to boot android from sdcard?I think changing root directory to mmcblk1 in the default kernel kommand line could help, have anyone done smthing like this before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if it works you'll still be using the same kernel and ramdisk which will only work on ROM very similar to your base.
Sent from my LG-P970

look what i've found http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1642185

suleymanovemil8 said:
look what i've found http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1642185
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a look. It looks promising. Its quite a cheap trick and should work on our phone.
I am on my phone now so I can't study what he did in detail and I'm not entirely sure how he handles kernel switching (yet).
It's a good find.
EDIT: Nothing to do with kernel root or command line though.
Sent from my LG-P970

xonar_ said:
I had a look. It looks promising. Its quite a cheap trick and should work on our phone.
I am on my phone now so I can't study what he did in detail and I'm not entirely sure how he handles kernel switching (yet).
It's a good find.
EDIT: Nothing to do with kernel root or command line though.
Sent from my LG-P970
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I`ve made script for OB and it works
HTML:
cat /sdcard/boot/sdboot.img > /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
echo Rebooting to SD Rom. Please wait...
sleep 3
reboot
return 0
I have repacked zeus rom`s kernel with sd mounts and put the system partition to mmcblk1p1 but it looks like smthing goes wrong(if sdcard is inserted it reboots to recovery in a few seconds but if I remove sd card it stucks at lg logo) and it have created app, data, etc. folders on data (sd) partition

suleymanovemil8 said:
I`ve made script for OB and it works
HTML:
cat /sdcard/boot/sdboot.img > /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
echo Rebooting to SD Rom. Please wait...
sleep 3
reboot
return 0
I have repacked zeus rom`s kernel with sd mounts and put the system partition to mmcblk1p1 but it looks like smthing goes wrong(if sdcard is inserted it reboots to recovery in a few seconds but if I remove sd card it stucks at lg logo) and it have created app, data, etc. folders on data (sd) partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make so that it only mount the sd partitions if the sd card is present and is made to be bootable.
Reflashing the boot.img isn't a nice way of doing it since bad flash would result in a bootloop. Linux has the ability to reload a kernel without shutting down. I don't know if the kernel that we use can do that maybe it's worth looking into.
Sent from my LG-P970

xonar_ said:
Make so that it only mount the sd partitions if the sd card is present and is made to be bootable.
Reflashing the boot.img isn't a nice way of doing it since bad flash would result in a bootloop. Linux has the ability to reload a kernel without shutting down. I don't know if the kernel that we use can do that maybe it's worth looking into.
Sent from my LG-P970
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as i said "and it have created app, data, etc. folders on data (sd) partition"

What if i will move /system #2 to /data partition and both of the systems will have data partition on sdcard?
PS. It worked!Now I have data partition on mmcblk1p2

here it is(this is kernel for cm10(26.10.2012))

suleymanovemil8 said:
What if i will move /system #2 to /data partition and both of the systems will have data partition on sdcard?
PS. It worked!Now I have data partition on mmcblk1p2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you going to do with the GB thats on the phone and not used?
EDIT: its rebooting to recovery because the kernel is set to reboot to recovery when it's 'panicking'.
Sent from my LG-P970

xonar_ said:
What are you going to do with the GB thats on the phone and not used?
Sent from my LG-P970
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no this kernel boots with normal system and data at sdcard and now i will make kernel with booting from data directory and with data at sdcard)

YES! I have now two roms on one phone!

suleymanovemil8 said:
YES! I have now two roms on one phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a walkthrough for us! :laugh::laugh:

genarinho said:
Do a walkthrough for us! :laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes ,pls
sent from my Nokia 1100 with droid 4.0

Just everyone thats reading this know that it still booting from phone and then reading data from sd. (Not true dualboot yet )
@ sulley
Why not use recovery as the phone boot.img and then normal boot then goes of two sd. CWM sources are available and can be modified so that it works as a boot manager. It will then be actual dual boot because from there you can load kernel from either sd or phone (and unload the recovery kernel and with its dying breath start the new kernel ).A project like this will take A LOT of time and will definitely be more than 6 months. Since it would be based on recovery it should be able to make it work for all phones that can use CWM and have similar boot structure. I will help out on a project like this but I can't be that involved with it since my studies will take up most of my time.

As much I understand, bootloader is needed for dualboot and it applies same on Android. So you got access to our bootloader or just directing the boot.img from 1st ROM to 2nd one? Like handshaking?

xonar_ said:
Just everyone thats reading this know that it still booting from phone and then reading data from sd. (Not true dualboot yet )
@ sulley
Why not use recovery as the phone boot.img and then normal boot then goes of two sd. CWM sources are available and can be modified so that it works as a boot manager. It will then be actual dual boot because from there you can load kernel from either sd or phone (and unload the recovery kernel and with its dying breath start the new kernel ).A project like this will take A LOT of time and will definitely be more than 6 months. Since it would be based on recovery it should be able to make it work for all phones that can use CWM and have similar boot structure. I will help out on a project like this but I can't be that involved with it since my studies will take up most of my time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I have installed rom's kernel to the recovery partition but after booting to this new kernel i couldn't boot back tonormal kernel till i reflashed recovery from rom manager
ps.recovery partition is at mmcblk0p4 and boot mcblk0p3

genarinho said:
Do a walkthrough for us! :laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tada!

As I expected, not real dualboot. But very much appreciting try. Keep it up

Anyway i still want to make one rom at nand and anouther on sdcard, but if i set in kernel system directory to mmcblk1p1(sdcard) it starts to boot but smthing goes wrong but it starts to boot and i know it because it creates app, data, app-private etc. folders on data partition of sdcard(mmcblk1p2), i think this is because it remounts sdcard or smthing like this.Any ideas about soving this problem?

[Q] The wisdom of formatting the system partition

I'm getting ready to update my old ParanoidAndroid (with CWM v5.5.0.4) with the CarbonRom.
I've backed up all kinds of logs, settings, and data that I think I may want to restore with the new rom.
I've also made a CWM backup (although of course I hope not to use it).
My question is - should I format the system partition (from CWM, Mounts & Storage option) before flashing the new rom?
I've seen people say emphatically that to get a clean install you need to do this.
Yet I've seen other's write just as insistently that you should NOT format the system partition. Do they say this because it is too dangerous? If I format the system partition and then for some reason the new rom won't load, does that mean my CWM is wiped out, making it difficult to recover?
I think I do want the system format because I don't want a bunch of old files hanging around ... but I want to make sure this is not too dangerous.
I've also seen others who recommended also formating the boot partition. Is there any value in that? Sounds even more dangerous ... no?
~Paul

pmennen said:
I'm getting ready to update my old ParanoidAndroid (with CWM v5.5.0.4) with the CarbonRom.
I've backed up all kinds of logs, settings, and data that I think I may want to restore with the new rom.
I've also made a CWM backup (although of course I hope not to use it).
My question is - should I format the system partition (from CWM, Mounts & Storage option) before flashing the new rom?
I've seen people say emphatically that to get a clean install you need to do this.
Yet I've seen other's write just as insistently that you should NOT format the system partition. Do they say this because it is too dangerous? If I format the system partition and then for some reason the new rom won't load, does that mean my CWM is wiped out, making it difficult to recover?
I think I do want the system format because I don't want a bunch of old files hanging around ... but I want to make sure this is not too dangerous.
I've also seen others who recommended also formating the boot partition. Is there any value in that? Sounds even more dangerous ... no?
~Paul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can format system,data, internal storage and cache without any worries if you are on PA rom read install instructions in carbon rom thread after or before.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk