Database Develop

[Q] putting apps in /system/app, good or bad?

Hi, I've been putting some of my apps apks in /system/app, so that I have more free space in /data.
Mostly I just put apps there that I know I will never need to uninstall, like TiBackup, LauncherPro etc. When those apps update, I just manually move the newer apk into /system/app.
Question: Is it wrong to fill up /system to almost-full?
I know it's mounted read-only during normal use, so nothing else can write to it anyway.

Yup, I'd like to know tha answer to this question too!

I have heard of it being done quite abit. So it can't be that bad.

Yeah, it can't be that bad. But what if you filled it to 100%, is that bad?
Cache and data are housed in separate partitions as far as I know. So, I believe it's ok to fill it up completely, since most other things don't need write access to /system partition anyway. If it's not being written to during normal operation, then any free space on /system is basically wasted.
But I'd still like to hear from someone more knowledgeable if it is indeed fine to fill up the /system partition. Or if it's better to leave a certain amount of space, and how much space is recommended.

It depends on the ROM. If you're using CM, apps in the /system partition stores it's dalvik-cache in the /cache partition. So, if I am correct, more apps in the /system means less /cache space.

I tried putting LauncherPro in /system/apps and then removing it from /data/apps, but with no luck - it kept force closing on launch not ideal for a launcher! I haven't yet figured out why it wouldn't work, but I'm sure I'll get there in the end.
SF

geevee11 said:
It depends on the ROM. If you're using CM, apps in the /system partition stores it's dalvik-cache in the /cache partition. So, if I am correct, more apps in the /system means less /cache space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On CM6, /cache is a different partition than /system, so it shouldn't affect cache space.
I'll observe the free space for a few days without adding additional apps on /system. Right now, I have 15MB free on /system, and 39MB free on /cache. I'll report back in a while.

r8dhex said:
On CM6, /cache is a different partition than /system, so it shouldn't affect cache space.
I'll observe the free space for a few days without adding additional apps on /system. Right now, I have 15MB free on /system, and 39MB free on /cache. I'll report back in a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was talking about the dalvik-cache. Even if you install apps in the /system partition, it'll still have the dex files. So the more apps you put in your /system partition, the more your /cache will fill up = less ram.

I found out that apps in /system couldn't be updated through the market.
For instance: the facebook app that comes installed with google apps package of CM6 is installed in the /system dir of the phone. When I tried to update it through market it would fail every time. Once I deleted the app from /system and rebooted the phone, updating (installing) the app from market went fine.

[Q] Can't convert /system to ext4?

As of last night I'm running CF Root 3 JVK on Gingerbread 2.3.3.
When I tried using the ext4 App to convert the file systems to ext4, it was successful for:
/dbdata
/data and
/cache
However for /system, it says:
Code:
Using: internal sdcard
Converting /system
- Backing up files ...
- Creating ext4 filesystem ...
- Restoring files ...
- Restore failed ! Not enough space ?
- Performing rollback ...
- Creating rfs filesystem ...
- Restoring files...
- Rollback success!
I cleared up some space on my phone and now I have 1.87GB available space on the sd card, and 13.26GB Available space on the USB storage.
and 1.75GB Available Space on System storage.
However I still can't convert /system to ext4.
Any ideas why this might be the case?

You need to free some space on /system to be able to successfully convert it to ext4. Apparently, ext4 needs some extra space for the conversion.
This is explained in the CF-Root main post, or in the CF-3.0 release information.

Okay thanks for that!
All the answers were in the original thread. I was just searching for the wrong terms.
I eventually downloaded Super Manager, activated its root mode and deleted the Aldiko eBook app from /system/app
That freed up enough space to convert /system to the ext4 filesystem!

mercifulhop said:
Okay thanks for that!
All the answers were in the original thread. I was just searching for the wrong terms.
I eventually downloaded Super Manager, activated its root mode and deleted the Aldiko eBook app from /system/app
That freed up enough space to convert /system to the ext4 filesystem!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're right.
that works.
greetings
andcooper

mercifulhop said:
As of last night I'm running CF Root 3 JVK on Gingerbread 2.3.3.
When I tried using the ext4 App to convert the file systems to ext4, it was successful for:
/dbdata
/data and
/cache
However for /system, it says:
Code:
Using: internal sdcard
Converting /system
- Backing up files ...
- Creating ext4 filesystem ...
- Restoring files ...
- Restore failed ! Not enough space ?
- Performing rollback ...
- Creating rfs filesystem ...
- Restoring files...
- Rollback success!
I cleared up some space on my phone and now I have 1.87GB available space on the sd card, and 13.26GB Available space on the USB storage.
and 1.75GB Available Space on System storage.
However I still can't convert /system to ext4.
Any ideas why this might be the case?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tell me pls where can i find the ext4 tool, for download.

kunacs said:
Tell me pls where can i find the ext4 tool, for download.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is attached on the first page of the CF-Root thread.

[Q] Apps, DalvikCache AND app data to SD on Stock ROM?

On the stock GB ROM, Link2SD requires a FAT32 partition to move the App and DalvikCache to the SD.
EDIT: Actually requires FAT32 OR EXT2 for stock...
Titanium backup requires an ext2/3/4 partition to use the Data2SD feature.
Is it possible to do both of these on a stock rom? Or use some other method to get the App, DalvikCache and app data to the SD without flashing another ROM?
I will be doing this for 3 of my family's phones and would much prefer to not have to flash ROMS and them have to put in extra effort afterwards.
I promise I've searched so apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, the closest I could find was http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1605006 which didn't answer the question...
Thanks in advance!
Tim

I have created two partitions, one FAT32 and one EXT2 using MiniTool Partition Wizard
Link2SD is correctly setup and working.
Titanium Backup has this to say:
The supported mount points for the ext2/3/4 partition are:
/system/sd/ (“classic” sd-ext)
/sd-ext/ (“Cyanogen” sd-ext)
/data/sd/ (“MIUI” sd-ext)
However none of these mount points are present (it appears to mount under /data/sdext2/) so I'm unable to use the Data2SD functionality as yet.
So the question now becomes, can I create multiple mount points for a single EXT2 partition on a Stock ROM (ideally easily!).

Install a custom kernel with init.d support.
Cf-root is the most common since it's based on stock, and preserves baseband.
After that, there's many choices:
-link2sd as you've beeb using
-cronmod or amarullz scripts (int2ext+) which mount sd partition as extention to internal memory (every app on internal gets installed to the partition).
-s2e has the option to also move data to the partition.
Keep in mind that having data on the partition will lower performance and smoothness as compared to having data on internal.

dxppxd said:
Install a custom kernel with init.d support.
...
...
Keep in mind that having data on the partition will lower performance and smoothness as compared to having data on internal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice.
I have a class 10 card that I was hoping would help mitigate the problem, am I just being naive?
I was hoping I'd be able to avoid a custom Kernel (haven't researched them enough yet)
I will try and find an S5830 Stock + init.d kernel tomorrow and see how that goes, I'm still planning on Titanium Backup to do the Data2SD.
Does this init.d script mount the partition somewhere that Titanium Backup can get hold of it then?

KingTimus said:
Does this init.d script mount the partition somewhere that Titanium Backup can get hold of it then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really can't say about titanium backups' data2sd function since i've never used it before.
The init.d script (i found cronmods' int2ext to be the most convenient) mounts the sd partition as part of /data. When making backups of apps+data titanium backup had 0 problems finding and backing up all apps. The problem might arise if the data2sd function tries to move /data (in which the partition is already mounted) to the partition.
Someone in the forum might know more details. You can always make a nandroid backup and see what happens. Good luk.

Nook Color CM10 emmc Data Partition Size

Loving the CM10 ROMs. Everything has been snappy on my nook since beta 2.
I thought I had the newer (revision 1.2+) nook partition layout (5gb data(apps)/1gb media). But now with CM10 I am getting an out of space error when trying to install new apps. I have moved all apps to my sd card and still get the error about not enough space. If I try and look at the partiton size it looks like it is maybe only 1gb now. Did installing a CM10 ROM change my partition size? Am I missing something else? Perhaps I am just wrong about my original partition sizes.
I searched some threads and the web and saw some discussion on my issue, particularly mention of a 'new CM10 partition layout', but this was confusing at best. It may not have even been nook related, but pertained to some phones.

dcahoe said:
Loving the CM10 ROMs. Everything has been snappy on my nook since beta 2.
I thought I had the newer (revision 1.2+) nook partition layout (5gb data(apps)/1gb media). But now with CM10 I am getting an out of space error when trying to install new apps. I have moved all apps to my sd card and still get the error about not enough space. If I try and look at the partiton size it looks like it is maybe only 1gb now. Did installing a CM10 ROM change my partition size? Am I missing something else? Perhaps I am just wrong about my original partition sizes.
I searched some threads and the web and saw some discussion on my issue, particularly mention of a 'new CM10 partition layout', but this was confusing at best. It may not have even been nook related, but pertained to some phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can tell by looking in settings and storage. It will tell you the size of your media storage. If you truly have the 1Gb /data, you might want to look at Dean Gibson's repartitioning thread. He has a 2gb/4gb version.
And no, there is no repartitioning that cm10 does. That was for a phone you saw.
Sent from my Nook HD+ running Tapatalk

Well, I think I do have the 5gb data/1gb media partition layout afterall.
In Setting->Apps->Downloaded it shows at the bottom 'Internal Storage, 753Mb used, 4.2Gb free'.
If I launch a terminal window:
$ df /data
/data Size=4G Used=643M Free=4G Blksize=4096
$ df /emmc
/emmc Size=1G Used=83M Free=942M Blksize=4096
$ df /mnt/sdcard
/mnt/sdcard Size=15G Used=10G Free=4G Blksize=8192
I guess the only app that is giving me the out of space is Titanium Backup. I can't get it to install from either the appstore or from .apk that I downloaded. Both methods start installing and then say 'out of space'. I have been installing and removing other apps along the way with no similar problem.
I did wipe cache/dalvik cache when installing ROM. I also tried CWM Fix Permissions. I also tried CWM Backup -> Wipe Data/Factory Reset -> Restore.
Anyone know why Titanium Backup won't install?

dcahoe said:
Well, I think I do have the 5gb data/1gb media partition layout afterall.
In Setting->Apps->Downloaded it shows at the bottom 'Internal Storage, 753Mb used, 4.2Gb free'.
If I launch a terminal window:
$ df /data
/data Size=4G Used=643M Free=4G Blksize=4096
$ df /emmc
/emmc Size=1G Used=83M Free=942M Blksize=4096
$ df /mnt/sdcard
/mnt/sdcard Size=15G Used=10G Free=4G Blksize=8192
I guess the only app that is giving me the out of space is Titanium Backup. I can't get it to install from either the appstore or from .apk that I downloaded. Both methods start installing and then say 'out of space'. I have been installing and removing other apps along the way with no similar problem.
I did wipe cache/dalvik cache when installing ROM. I also tried CWM Fix Permissions. I also tried CWM Backup -> Wipe Data/Factory Reset -> Restore.
Anyone know why Titanium Backup won't install?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing I can think of is some users are having read only problems on both SD card and /data, which is where apps get installed. Have you tried to install other apps since the TB install failed? A test you can try to see if you are one of the users with ro issues is to use a root file manager (there is one built into CM10 now) to create a test file somewhere on /data.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk

Create cache on micro sd

I'm looking for the best way to move /cache partition which is at 210mb to micro sd card. I'm having freezes when apps access that cache partition. While some apps are working fine, i could gain a bit of stability if i pull this out.
Looked on google for link2sd, and formating the sd card to a specific file type. So there could be a work around for cache, too.
It'd help me a lot to find a solution for this problem.

someone try this:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spazedog.mounts2sd

That's not it, that moves the APP (all of it) to a 2nd EXT4 partition on the SDcard and creates a symlink.
To move the /cache partition, would require a little tweaking. You're still needing the 2nd partition, /cache cannot be on FAT32.

neier24 said:
I'm looking for the best way to move /cache partition which is at 210mb to micro sd card. I'm having freezes when apps access that cache partition. While some apps are working fine, i could gain a bit of stability if i pull this out.
Looked on google for link2sd, and formating the sd card to a specific file type. So there could be a work around for cache, too.
It'd help me a lot to find a solution for this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

I got sick of trying to fix. I'll see what i can do in a couple of months when i get back to this... after a "short" break.