Database Develop

Having problems with ext3 for months now... help :(

Hey xda!
I keep losing my ext3 partition with all my apps every few boots.
It actually usually happens after I have trouble installing/uninstalling apps, which send my phone into softboot mania. A hard reboot usually fixes the app install problem, but every so often unmounts the ext3, which I then have to reïnstall.
Over the past months I've been moving dalvik around, flashing new ROMs, full wipes all the time, checking ext3 for errors, using different software to format re-partition,... The problem is that these issues are non-persistent and so very hard to check if it's fixed. So every time I have to reboot I'll clench my heart and full on rage when I lose ext again
So today after partitioning my SD card again and doing a full wipe, only to lose my ext3 again after hours of setting my phone back up it dawned on me... could this be my recovery??
I'm on CWM 5.0.2.0
It served me well for like a year until I got into the whole A2SD thing...
Problem is I wanna go back to AmonRA now (think that was my first recovery) but Mod Manager won't let me anymore. And I don't have adb anymore, nor the knowledge of how I rooted and did all of that stuff 2 years ago (scatterbrain).
So... Any thoughts on this, is my recovery the issue here? And can I flash AmonRA without having to go through adb and all that?
tl;dr
My ext3 is ****ed (sporadically), I THINK recovery is to blame. I suck at adb, how to flash AmonRA?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Yeah...quit using CW around version 3 due to the exact same BS...I found I had to actually repartion the whole SD card several times and even lost my backups once...
AmonRA was good but the newest greatest and most amazing recovery inho is 4EXT! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1291970 it has been the best recovery I have used bar none and the developer is awesome with support if needed!

Thanks for responding so quick, you did not lie about the awesomeness of 4ext!
I'm having a blast tinkering with the recovery control settings
Since we're in the same boat, maybe you can be of advice.. Would upgrading to ext4 do me any good? Any upsides to it?
When I got into A2SD, ext4 was too new and considered to be "DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS" xD

EXT4 is the stock filesystem for all new Android phones.

Jack_R1 said:
EXT4 is the stock filesystem for all new Android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok, so it would be ridiculous for me to get it now, thanks for clarifying
For the record, this issue has (as it seems for now) been resolved by flashing AmonRA and wiping -> repartitioning the card with that.

While AmonRA was great I found many advanced features in 4EXT. For instance you can go from ext3 to ext4 and back again with just the push of a button. EXT4 is a more efficient file system and most ROM's nowadays should support it...if not just switch back to ext3. Also 4ext will check for filesystem errors on your SD card and also check partition alignment. If you use 4ext to partition it will ensure proper partition alignment which the other recoveries don't do....

While I was impressed with ext4 features and all, I tend to go with stability over advanced features. Which is why I'm on Amon_RA's recovery, and also why I'm on an OTA build ROM, so ext4 support is ruled out for me. I want my phone just to have all the functionality I need, and have maximum reliability so I can always depend on it.
In the ext4 thread there's a good example of why I will mostly choose stability over extended functionality

Galloway said:
While AmonRA was great I found many advanced features in 4EXT. For instance you can go from ext3 to ext4 and back again with just the push of a button. EXT4 is a more efficient file system and most ROM's nowadays should support it...if not just switch back to ext3. Also 4ext will check for filesystem errors on your SD card and also check partition alignment. If you use 4ext to partition it will ensure proper partition alignment which the other recoveries don't do....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm 4EXT is the best recovery (using it for few months now without any pbs) and ext4 partitions are reliable now! Don't hesitate.

Stuck on LG screen when using EXT4 ROMs

Hi all,
I dont know if this is hardware related since my LG 2x is a white one which is made in Oct 2011 as LG may change the hardware a little to prevent support in EXT4.
Anyway, here is my problem...
Anytime I flash my 2x with ANY EXT4 ROM or kernel (eg: Topogigi v2.0, Thanatos2X v4.2, NeoBlaze EXT4 kernel etc...) I cannot boot my phone pass the LG logo screen. (This is without the progress bar at the bottom of the LG logo).
The phone is stuck there forever unless I pull the battery and reflash the ROM with backtoext3.zip and an EXT3 ROM. All EXT3 ROM work 100%, like LG's Stock, Modaco GR5, Slick2X, BlazingDragon2.1 and CM7 etc.
So I am wondering if it is my phone that is causing this problem or whether I am missing something along the way.
I would love to try EXT4 ROM thus any help/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hello!
1st it isn's your phones hardware. LG isn't preventing anyone from using EXT4 - this is solely in the software implementation.
…and CM7 isn’t a “EXT3” ROM. CM7 supports any ext (2/3/4 doesn’t matter).
The kernel or some messed up installation script is most probably the culprit…
When installing a new ROM you should always:
Format /system and /cache and then wipe dalvik – this way you get a clean system but you don’t lose your user data! Afterwards install ROM and gapps if needed/not includes in rom and then the kernel if needed + scripts.
Good working combo should be topogigi/thanatos and horsepower kernel.

Verify that /cache is reformated, certain version of backtoext3 don't reformat /cache.
CM7 is an ext4 ROM (last time I used it it was...months ago), but perhaps it's just a 'remount as ext4' and not a native fresh ext4 formatting..
So basic things: format all partitions in CWM: /system /cache /data, erase Dalvik. Then to be sure backtoext3.
There are no reason to not be able to use ext4 as it is only a matter of kernel driver and partition format = software and not hardware.

Thanks for the info.
I forgot to mentioned in my 1st post that I always wipe system, cache and dalvik cache before flashing all the ROM I mentioned before.
I checked again and yes, CM7.2 is EXT4, so my title of my post is not correct.
Anyhow, I just tried to flash the Kernel 'ironkrnL32-20111214h1547' over my working CM7.2 ROM; however, the same thing happened. After the flash, the booting will be stuck at the LG logo screen and does not move past that point.
Moreover, I have also tried the Topogigi ROM w/ SP merged (just 1 file) and it did not boot past the LG logo point as well.
I am really out of ideas now.

I had same issue before, what I do is after I flash, I let it load for 10 mins, and of course its stuck on booting, take out the battery and sd card and put back battery only, after that, it loads. I don't know why but it works for my phone so it might work for you.

Successfully Revert back to OOS 3.2.8 (MM) from Open Beta 8 (N)

I installed the N beta and have to say it was not working for me as I had a few bugs with it. There is a way to easily revert back to MM.
Boot into TWRP.
Go to advanced wipe and select everything including system. (This will delete everything including os from your phone)
Reboot and go into twrp again.
Flash 3.2.8 and SuperSu (optional)
Thats it. No need for any special build as OP said.

Thx for that Info. Have you been on F2fs or on ext4?

In my case I guess i can´t got beta 8 installed and twrp ask for pin did you think if i wipe data and flash 3.2.6 i manage to revert?

Blubber120 said:
Thx for that Info. Have you been on F2fs or on ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was on ext4. to get on f2fs you have to hard reset your device after flashing beta.

Crash said:
In my case I guess i can´t got beta 8 installed and twrp ask for pin did you think if i wipe data and flash 3.2.6 i manage to revert?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you have enabled pin on bootup. You can try disabling it and then you should be able to get to recovery.

Thx. I am afraid, if on f2fs, it wouldnt be that easy, but good to know that it works if we stayed on ext4

Blubber120 said:
Thx. I am afraid, if on f2fs, it wouldnt be that easy, but good to know that it works if we stayed on ext4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can clean reflash the open beta 8 instead of 3.2.8 which would take you back to ext4 then you can flash 3.2.8.

what is the file system by default in op3 and will installing open beta 8 change file system to f2fs or to ext4?? thanks

Ext4 is default. Whether ob8 changes it or not, i got no aim.

bonham1988 said:
I installed the N beta and have to say it was not working for me as I had a few bugs with it. There is a way to easily revert back to MM.
Boot into TWRP.
Go to advanced wipe and select everything including system. (This will delete everything including os from your phone)
Reboot and go into twrp again.
Flash 3.2.8 and SuperSu (optional)
Thats it. No need for any special build as OP said.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing :good:
Very useful info.

Correct me if I am wrong, but this method to revert back to 3.2.8 will only work only if you have flashed open beta 8 with official twrp as the partition will remain to EXT4.
If you have flashed the update through stock or modded twrp recovery then your system partition will become F2FS so this method to revert back to 3.2.8 will not work as it need EXT4 system partition.

daninantro said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but this method to revert back to 3.2.8 will only work only if you have flashed open beta 8 with official twrp as the partition will remain to EXT4.
If you have flashed the update through stock or modded twrp recovery then your system partition will become F2FS so this method to revert back to 3.2.8 will not work as it need EXT4 system partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on the latest twrp by eng.stk, twrp-3.0.2-1.28

bonham1988 said:
I'm on the latest twrp by eng.stk, twrp-3.0.2-1.28
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I am guessing your system partition is ext4 and f2fs , right? Coz, after a clean flash the system will become f2fs partition (thats what I read)
EDIT: Oh, You need to do hard reset for f2fs..
Also, did you read another thread? the users who did a remote session with OP said that u need some certificate file to downgrade to official OTA. something related to encryption

daninantro said:
So I am guessing your system partition is ext4 and f2fs , right? Coz, after a clean flash the system will become f2fs partition (thats what I read)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it remains on ext4 even after a clean flash. You have do a hard reset to change it to f2fs.

I wonder what happens if file system is changed to f2fs. Should we change the partition to ext4 in twrp before installing OOS 3.2.8?

bonham1988 said:
I installed the N beta and have to say it was not working for me as I had a few bugs with it. There is a way to easily revert back to MM.
Boot into TWRP.
Go to advanced wipe and select everything including system. (This will delete everything including os from your phone)
Reboot and go into twrp again.
Flash 3.2.8 and SuperSu (optional)
Thats it. No need for any special build as OP said.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buddy,
"wipe everything", that includes internal storage.. I read that it's not a good ideea to wipe internal storage.
But, thanks for info.

When you say wipe everything do you also mean internal storage? I really don't want to wipe that if it isn't absolutely necessary.

I am on Arter's CM13 Rom with modified kernel and with cache, system and data, all on f2fs.
What all do i have to keep on f2fs and what on ext4 to install Beta8.
After that i can follow all the steps with modified recovery, right? Or do i have to flash 3.5.5 or Beta7 first?

GaugeX said:
I am on Arter's CM13 Rom with modified kernel and with cache, system and data, all on f2fs.
What all do i have to keep on f2fs and what on ext4 to install Beta8.
After that i can follow all the steps with modified recovery, right? Or do i have to flash 3.5.5 or Beta7 first?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that the OP3T only uses F2FS for the DATA partition.
All other partitions are EXT4.
So I guess they will probably keep it that way on Nougat.
The beta 8 kernel might actually support F2FS for the other partitions, but without the source code I think you can only try.
Personally I am running Nougat Beta 8 as mentioned with DATA only on F2FS.

it might be a silly question, but now reading a lot about ext4 and F2FS everything I am totally messed up. Below are the confusions/queries-
1. How can I come to know I am on which files system, ext4 or f2fs ? (if I have twrp installed)
2. can it be changed from on to other, if yes, how?
3. Two latest builds - stock 3.2.8 and beta 8 are on ext4 and f2fs respectively, is it correct?
4. If I am on beta8 (flashed via modded twrp), how can I downgrade to stock 3.2.8 ?

Everytime i reboot into TWRP, my phone get wiped...

Does anyone have encountered this issue?? It's really damn annoying... Thanks for any help

I did have it and it is very annoying, I installed TWRP Blue Spark and it solved the issue. I will look for it and if I find it I will share it with you.

What version of TWRP are you using? 3.0.3-1, 3.0.4 and 3.0.4-1 have all been working well so far.

Anova's Origin said:
What version of TWRP are you using? 3.0.3-1, 3.0.4 and 3.0.4-1 have all been working well so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happens if yu are f2fs formatted and swipe in allow for modifications when booting in §TWRP. If you don't swipe, you can still flash roms. Not sure what's changing anyway...I formatted ext4 and have no issues right now.

iam using f2fs with latest twrp (3.0.4.x) and no such issues.
but i was losing apps randomly after booting into recovery, on older TWRP versions.

Installed TWRP 3.0.4 and everything seems back to normal. Thanks for ur help guys.
Now my next problem is 4g reception in France..
Cheers thanks a lot
PS: how do I know if I'm using f2fs or ext4?

I believe there was an option somewhere in TWRP to view all your partitions and their file formats. By default, only the data partition is formatted in f2fs, everything else should be ext4 (and maybe fat?)
Edit: If you select Wipe in TWRP, then advanced wipe, and select the Data partition, you can click partition options to see what the file format is (don't swipe right if you don't want to wipe it). Aside from data, every other partition should be ext4 by default.
There's also apps like disk info that can tell you the file system used as well.

piffa_ said:
Installed TWRP 3.0.4 and everything seems back to normal. Thanks for ur help guys.
Now my next problem is 4g reception in France..
Cheers thanks a lot
PS: how do I know if I'm using f2fs or ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a app on playstore disk info
and there is new twrp avaliable 3.0.4.1

(Guide) Convert EXT4 to F2FS on lavendar

Hi,
I made this guideline for those who want to convert filesystem from EXT3 / EXT4 to F2FS on lavendar, for amazing speed & performance.
I already had MIUI EU beta working on my phone.
Note: Internal data storage will be wiped. Make sure to have a backup.
Steps:
1. Install Orange Fox Recovery (latest one)
2. Reboot to recovery
3. Go to Manage Partition
4. Select "Cache" and click orange tick button, then choose F2FS as the file
system and proceed.
5. Again, select "Data" and click orange tick button, then choose F2FS as the file
system and proceed.
6. Reboot to Recovery again.
7. Install a custom kernel which support F2FS (i.e Evira)
8. Install Universal F2FS support patch file. (otherwise causing boot loop)
9. Reboot
Enjoy the speed.>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi! Filesystem F2FS keeps always even if you make full wipes + format data? For example, if i do the process but later i want to change my device's ROM, system will still have F2FS after wipes and format data? Sorry i've never changed my device's Kernel so i don't know if the system keep the new kernel (and the F2FS support patch file mentioned in this post) after a wipe + format data or they have to be re-flashed. Thank you in advance.

Did as instructed. got a boot loop : (
Are you sure that fstab flags are properly set? I don't see 'nofail' option or maybe there's some other option that substitutes?
I use miui eu 9.8.9
I reformatted back to EXT4 and it boots again.
If you are not so sure (neither am I, I will go research mount command options) then I recommend 3 separate zips
One that's F2FS only for cache and data
One that's all EXT4 for cache and data in case someone needed to revert without reflashing rom
And one that's F2FS cache and EXT4 data because migrating data partition can be a lengthy process for some people. But formatting cache is always easy.

Plast0000 said:
Did as instructed. got a boot loop : (
Are you sure that fstab flags are properly set? I don't see 'nofail' option or maybe there's some other option that substitutes?
I use miui eu 9.8.9
I reformatted back to EXT4 and it boots again.
If you are not so sure (neither am I, I will go research mount command options) then I recommend 3 separate zips
One that's F2FS only for cache and data
One that's all EXT4 for cache and data in case someone needed to revert without reflashing rom
And one that's F2FS cache and EXT4 data because migrating data partition can be a lengthy process for some people. But formatting cache is always easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem, to solve it do the partitions process, flash first evira, reboot to recovery again and flash the patch. It worked for me and booted succesfully into the rom. I use xiaomi eu 9.8.9 too.

jalzate94 said:
I had the same problem, to solve it do the partitions process, flash first evira, reboot to recovery again and flash the patch. It worked for me and booted succesfully into the rom. I use xiaomi eu 9.8.9 too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I do it like this?
1- change partition fs
2- reboot into recovery
3- flash evira
4- reboot into recovery
5- flash fstab.zip
6- reboot into rom

Is there actually any benefit at all in using F2FS on Lavender since the flash type is not one of ones supported by F2FS?
Sent from my Note 5 / 5 Plus using XDA Labs

gardiol said:
Is there actually any benefit at all in using F2FS on Lavender since the flash type is not one of ones supported by F2FS?
Sent from my Note 5 / 5 Plus using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean when you say that its flash type is not supported by F2FS?
also see these posts:
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...o-perfomance-after-formatting-to-f2fs.441177/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2697069

Plast0000 said:
What do you mean when you say that its flash type is not supported by F2FS?
also see these posts:
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...o-perfomance-after-formatting-to-f2fs.441177/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2697069
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, F2FS works on NAND flash memories.... Lavender ilis NOT a NAND flash, so there is no advantage in using it. At least this is the rationale if I am not wrong.
As speed goes, F2FS is no benefit as your link said, but also for the wear and tear there is not much benefit
Sent from my Note 5 / 5 Plus using XDA Labs

gardiol said:
See, F2FS works on NAND flash memories.... Lavender ilis NOT a NAND flash, so there is no advantage in using it. At least this is the rationale if I am not wrong.
As speed goes, F2FS is no benefit as your link said, but also for the wear and tear there is not much benefit
Sent from my Note 5 / 5 Plus using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm? according to mi website and wikipedia it uses eMMC 5.1 which is a NAND storage. why wouldn't it work?
As for my link they all agree that F2FS is a bit slower for read but hellalot faster for write. overall gain is considerable.

Plast0000 said:
Hmm? according to mi website and wikipedia it uses eMMC 5.1 which is a NAND storage. why wouldn't it work?
As for my link they all agree that F2FS is a bit slower for read but hellalot faster for write. overall gain is considerable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... Well, my info is wrong then... In this case it would be useful
Sent from my Note 5 / 5 Plus using XDA Labs

White_Lion said:
Hi! Filesystem F2FS keeps always even if you make full wipes + format data? For example, if i do the process but later i want to change my device's ROM, system will still have F2FS after wipes and format data? Sorry i've never changed my device's Kernel so i don't know if the system keep the new kernel (and the F2FS support patch file mentioned in this post) after a wipe + format data or they have to be re-flashed. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, the data partition will be converted back to ext4 everytime you do "format data".
Not formatting your data could keep the f2fs status, but it's risky to not formatting data when changing ROM in lavender due to it's strict encryption issue.
Plast0000 said:
Did as instructed. got a boot loop : (
Are you sure that fstab flags are properly set? I don't see 'nofail' option or maybe there's some other option that substitutes?
I use miui eu 9.8.9
I reformatted back to EXT4 and it boots again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Miui.eu ROMs doesn't fully support F2FS. The rom does, but the kernel doesn't.
You need to make sure both the ROM and kernel has F2FS support.
if one of them don't, you'll get bootloop.
Plast0000 said:
So I do it like this?
1- change partition fs
2- reboot into recovery
3- flash evira
4- reboot into recovery
5- flash fstab.zip
6- reboot into rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been on F2FS since.. April I think, and I've installed and tried so many roms without any problem.
here's what I normally do and it works all the time:
- Make sure data & cache are ext4
- format data
- reboot recovery,
- wipe cache, dalvik, system, data, internal,
- flash firmware
- flash ROM
- flash gapps (optional)
- flash magisk
- flash kernel that has f2fs support (optional, if the rom's kernel doesn't support F2FS)
- reboot system
————————————————————————
it's necessary to install the rom in EXT4 because automatic encryption doesn't work in f2fs partition (I think... based on my experience). granted, you can do the encryption manually from settings, but it's require to have 80%++ battery and the more stuff you have in your internal, the longer it'd take to manually encrypt the device. automatic encryption is just easier to do. You can leave your internal decrypted as well, but you won't be able to use your fingerprint or any screen lock methods. That's just how redmi 7 family works.
————————————————————————
- once you get into system, reboot to recovery once again
- convert cache & data to f2fs
- flash magisk
- flash universal f2fs patch
- reboot
now your /data and /cache are in f2fs.
If you're already on a rom and kernel that support f2fs, you can just do the later half of this tutorial without the need to reinstall rom and everything, but you'd lose all your data. good luck!

What's the benefit of changing cache into F2FS?

begging
Seeking flash tutorial videos

Thanks
thx for guide.

Which custom rom that support f2fs?