Database Develop

What is the truth behind the sdcard complaints for KitKat

While researching the great N7000/Galaxy-S2 sdcard FUSE deadlock bug, I've come across lots of posts that complain in the strongest possible language about how KitKat has changed the rules for SD cards.
The android police thread named "external-blues-google-has-brought-big-changes-to-sd-cards-in-kitkat-and-even-samsung-may-be-implementing-them" seems to sum things up less emotionally:
An app without any permissions has automatic read and write for designated private folders on the primary and secondary storage
An app with WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, also has:
Read and write for any public folder on the primary (built-in) storage
Read (not write) for any public folder on the secondary (SD card) storage
This implies, as many posts point out, that some of our most useful tools (file managers, backup apps, ...) will no longer work.
But I'm not seeing that - FX, even in non-SU mode, can still create folders and files and copy between cards, for example.
So what IS the (full) truth, and how does this affect Omni?

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/storage/config-example.html
Note: Anything here relating to use of the sdcard daemon for anything other than mapping /data/media to /sdcard on devices with unified storage is NEW for 4.4
Also relevant: https://github.com/omnirom/android_system_core/commit/dfe0cbab3f9039f34af1dc9e31faf8155737ec2d - this is the one that modified the sdcard fuse daemon to do all the new stuff, and it's somewhere in the set of changes starting here that the problem lies.
It can't simply be reverted out as all of the new KK perms management stuff depends on the new daemon to work properly.

would it be fair to say that they're killing off the ext card?

Google has never had a card slot in their phones. Originally, they wanted you to store everything on their servers.
The changes are needed to provide some level of security on the external card, a gaping hole prior to KK and not a whole lot better now. For a slew of reasons, you don't want any app to be able to arbitrarily read another apps data, even if on the card.
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Posted from whatever phone booted today

Worth buying a 2. hand SP for 100$? Possible to use 32 GB SdCard for installing apps?

I know that this phone is rather old currently but i'm still interested in it, let me explain.
I'm a Huawei Ideos X5 and Motorola Atrix 4G user, which are ancient comparing to XSP :laugh:. With the help of CM7.2 these devices are still operable. (Thanks to all developers and contributors). But i need at least Android v4.2 for some of the applications. These devices don't have official CM11, and unofficial CM11 Roms have some critical bugs and disadvantages for my usage, unfortunately.
I like Sony devices in general (do you remember K750i, W810i etc?) and interested in the compact series especially. I would get a Z3 compact but read a lot about the cracks and some other physical problems, so i decided to wait for the next generation. Then the Z5 Compact came at last, but with the notorious snapdragon 810! And it's still expensive, here in Turkey. So i think the next generation of Compact will probably be the ultimate one to buy.
Till that time, i want to use another compact sized phone such as XSP because it has these Pros among others:
+ Official Cyanogenmod support (It has stable CM11, and nightly CM12.1 AFAIK)
+ Gps with GLONASS support. (I use navigation in car frequently, so lock time and accuracy are important)
+ supports OTG AFAIK, although it's not noted on GSMArena page.
+ GYROSCOPE sensor.
+ FM Radio (is it still usable after installing CM11?)
Additionally, I'm aware of the Cons below, but they won't be a major problem for me (I guess):
- TFT display (it must be an awful joke )
- 155 gr weight
- 1 GB Ram
- 8 GB (5.8 GB user available) internal memory. (I have major concerns about these, see below!)
- insufficient Cameras
- Non-removable battery
- Low volume levels, especially in-call volume (This is a common Sony problem, right?)
Anyway, here come my questions:
* Does it worth buying a 2.5 year old second hand XSP for 100$? I don't know the brand new price, seems not sold nowadays. I didn't check the local shops yet, but buying a brand new one for a, say 200-250$, is not reasonable, right?
* Is it possible to use an external SdCard for installing apps? (By swapping external SDCard to internalSD, NOT via Folder Mount etc.)
I will definitely root the phone and install CM11 most probably. Please help me finding out these:
In general, the phones have /data partition for installing applications, and /sdcard partition for large application datas and user data. For example in Motorola Atrix 16 GB;
* /data partition is 2 GB .
It's large enough for me, so i don't have to move apps to sd. And some of the large apps install themselves to /Sd (be it internal 10,7 GB partition or external 32 GB in CM7.2) automatically. (The large games still need the /sd , that's for sure)
* /sdcard partition is 10,7 GB.
It's almost full although i use the other 32 GB SDcard for my music, video etc. files. Since CM7.2 has the option to use the external SDCard as internal SD, i can exchange them whenever i want. This is one of the most useful features of CM, i like it.
What is the situation in Xperia SP, can we use external SD Card to install apps?
The XSP has 8 GB (5.8 GB user available) internal memory, so i will have to use my 32 GB sdcard inevitably. And i have to use it as the main storage area for apps, not just for the user files! I guess it's not an option in Android JB and KK versions natively, right? What about CM11?
What is the content of the 5.8 GB user available memory? Is it
* just the 5.8 GB /sdcard partition (then /data partition is ?), or
* 1 GB /data partition + 4.8 GB /sdcard partition, or
* 1.5 GB /data partition + 4.3 GB /sdcard partition, or
* 2 GB /data partition + 3.8 GB /sdcard partition, or what?
I hope the /data partition is 2 GB or higher. Because we won't have to move the apps to Sd manually, if we have a lot of apps. And when we unmount the external SdCard for some reason, most of the apps are still usable, that's great. (I had to move some of the apps to SD in Motorola Atrix lately, because 2 GB is almost full! Another example, we had to extend the 600MB /data partition in Huawei Ideos X5 with a lot of hassle years ago. I hope i won't have to struggle like this in XSP!)
I will use the 32 GB Sd Card for the rest, apps' sd datas and my user files, anyway. Again, is it possible in CM11?
I know i asked a lot, but your opinions are really important for me. Please advise, thanks in advance.

Marshmallow Unused Partitions Small \data possible solutions

Hi everybody.
I flashed CM13 with success inside the Unsued Partitions (aka Safe Slot), along with the OC kernel.
I tried then to see if I was able to actually use the phone day to day. I was immediately faced the issue of the small /data partition, which, with the pico gapps, starts with nearly 700MB used (first boot), more than half of the available storage.
The built-in "move to sd" option (only for some apps) doesn't move the biggest files to the external storage.
Is it possible to use the "adoptable storage" option for Marshmallow on the Droid 4? (obviously with a suitable sd card).
Will it encrypt the sd card partition by default?
Thank you very much for your help,
sweetsuicide

Bump

Bump

Ok,
I found the time to test it out myself. Adoptable storage is indeed available in cm13, but it actually is of limited help: most apps WON'T move to sd. Is this the intended behavior or am I doing aometinf wrong?

SD card encryption (honor 4X CHE2-L11, stock EMUI 4.0.3, Android 6.0)

Hello everyone ,
I recently encrypted my phone, using the utility in setting>advanced>security>crypt your phone but realized that the sd card wasn't encrypted and that there was no available option in the default menu.
Adoptable storage would be a solution, but, even though there are some hacks that can enable adoptable storage on the honor 4X (like using Root Essentials), those options aren't 100% working (bugs when displaying available space, ...). So that doesn't look like the best solution. (I saw this post, but I don't see how I could use encryption with this method and am not really comfortable with the idea of flashing a pre-packaged modified kernel, in which I can't see what else might have been changed)
I also experimented with ROMs available for the device (ex : RROS) wich have adoptable storage enabled, but I am not 100% satisfied with those ROMs so I don't want to use them on my every day device (problems with the GPS when no GAPPS, which I'd like to avoid, battery drain, ...).
I know there are apps like EDS lite with which you can create an encrypted container, but I'd like to keep it more convenient and so I'm looking to encrypt the whole sd card and decrypt it at boot time. So basically, the best case scenario would be to have an encrypted SD card, but still be able to do everything I'm used to doing with it (move apps, listen to music, scroll my photo gallery, ...)
I am not strictly speaking looking for adoptable storage, just for a solution to have an encrypted sd card working (actually, a scenario more like where I could make a LUKS EXT4 partiton on my whole card would be awesome, so that you can have your data back when the phone dies). Also, my phone is rooted and, even though I don't really know about the "hidden things" in Android, I'm comfortable enough on Linux, so I don't mind having to use a terminal to achieve my purpose.
If anyone has an idea, that would be awesome, many thanks in advance

I'd appreciate some help... Exfat/NTFS and stuff

So I'm kinda new to this rooting thing. Currently on my first rooted phone, and have been loving the experience.
But I've run into an issue that I'm not sure how to solve. My phone doesn't support exfat or NTFS for portable storage SD cards. And the files I keep are too big for fat32 to handle.
I know I can format as internal shared storage and use ext4 that way, but I really hate how internal shared storage encrypts everything on the SD. I don't want to tie the data on my SD card to the lifespan of my phone, or to the lifespan of however long before I do a factory reset.
Is there a way to change what os my phone runs in order to move to something that supports exfat? And if so, can you please give me a noob friendly way of how to do that?

Supposedly this Kernel is supposed to give exFAT support when used with a Magisk module.
P.S., where this is your first time ROMming and such, some quick tips: Make sure you flash everything on a high charge (80% or higher), and through a USB you're not worried about having any frays or anything. I'll always use the nicest, newest USB I have just to play it safe. Razer specifically states on their site that the cable included with the phone 2 is NOT intended for flashing any files -- only for massive power passthrough. It's also always a good idea to keep a backup / original image somewhere handy in case **** hits the fan... because believe me, you'll brick your OS one day, and it'll be nice to have a quick fix so you're not out a phone. Feel free to PM if you've got any other general Root/ROM questions!

Zalgus said:
So I'm kinda new to this rooting thing. Currently on my first rooted phone, and have been loving the experience.
But I've run into an issue that I'm not sure how to solve. My phone doesn't support exfat or NTFS for portable storage SD cards. And the files I keep are too big for fat32 to handle.
I know I can format as internal shared storage and use ext4 that way, but I really hate how internal shared storage encrypts everything on the SD. I don't want to tie the data on my SD card to the lifespan of my phone, or to the lifespan of however long before I do a factory reset.
Is there a way to change what os my phone runs in order to move to something that supports exfat? And if so, can you please give me a noob friendly way of how to do that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ill try and type something up as soon as I get it working been running into issues when trying to get arter97 kernel working with exfat.

I got it working and the steps I took are in the link here
I posted it in the kernel thread since I was having issues with that.