Safestrap stock partition too small - Motorola Droid 4

Can you change the stock partition size on safestrap's stock slot at all? It shows two internal memory slots, one at 3.01gb and the other is 8gb. What is going on with that other 5gb and why isn't it used?

hockeymikey said:
Can you change the stock partition size on safestrap's stock slot at all? It shows two internal memory slots, one at 3.01gb and the other is 8gb. What is going on with that other 5gb and why isn't it used?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not 100% sure, but I believe the non-user 8gb is split between /webtop, /cd, /preinstall, /system, /data, /cache/. /webtop and /preinstall alone eat up 2gb of it.
And, no, it can't be changed. Our resident awesome developer gave it a try a while back, and found that apparently the bootloader checks at power-on to see if the partitions are all "correct". If they're not, it pops an error screen, and there's nowhere to go from there; it pretty much soft-bricks the phone until the stock configuration is restored via fastboot image.
If we had an unlockable bootloader, then it's possible that this restriction could be removed. However, we don't - based on some poking at it by another member, it doesn't even recognize commands to pull information for/enter an unlock code - so we're stuck with stock partition sizes and virtual slots.
If you really have no choice but to use the stock "slot", you might want to look into buying a big SD card, getting Link2SD, and devoting part of said SD card to it. If you're using KitKat, the built-in App2SD might be adequate, but for Lollipop/Marshmallow, the 3gb just...isn't enough. App2SD isn't effective enough.
Otherwise, get a decent SD card and write the internal 8gb off as system storage. Make a slot with a 4gb /data size (the biggest we can go), and 700mb-1gb /system size. Install a gapps package that contains anything you would normally go to the Play Store and download separately; this installs them to /system, leaving /data more free for downloaded apps.
For large apps, use App2SD where you can to shift part of them from /data to the internal 8gb.
If you don't plan on flashing new nightlies very often, you can get apps to convert other apps into system apps, storing them in /system as well. The problem here is that they'll be wiped out whenever a new ROM is flashed, so you'd have to devise some method of backing them up and flashing them after the new nightly (ZipMe might work).

Related

Jesus freak 1.5 apps to sd help?

i just installed jesus freak 1.5. i also purchased a 16gb micro sdhc card. I would like to know how to get apps to sd running correctly. I have followed another method and messed up the sd card. so i purchased a brand new one and before i even take it out of the package, i would like to talk to someone that has had sucesssful experience.
Thanx in Advance
A2SD in a Nutshell
the essence of apps2sd is:
1) creating a vfat/fat32 partition for storing user data
2) creating a second partition, ext2 to hold your apps and caches
3) creating directories within the ext2 partition on the SD to house your caches and apps
4) copying your apps and caches to the SD within the appropriate directories on the ext2 partition
5) rebooting within recovery console and deleting the original app and cache directories, AND
6) symbolically linking the ext2 apps/cache folders on the SD to the appropriate system partition folder names
7) rebooting to android and testing apps to determine which need to be reinstalled or reconfigured
your ext2 partition need not be very large relative to the volume of the SD; half a gig is normally adequate
pre-requisites:
you will need regular access to an OS that supports the ext2 filesystem, like linux. this is important because if your ext2 partition ever becomes damaged, the linux system has the tools to fix the ext2 filesystem errors.
you will need to know the commands for creating partitions on your SD
you should know how to use ADB to connect to your G1's shell, though this is optional
you need to know how to (re)boot to the recovery console and use its shell
you need to be familiar with the commands required to copy directories, create and delete directories, and create symbolic links
There are other Threads that have other programs and tutorials, but I used this one the other day on a JF 1.5 and it worked well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=512743
Only issue I had was I had to move JF Updater back to Phone from SD , but that could have been a glitch when the phone checked for an update. The two apps used AppstoSD2 and a2sd pretty much do everything for you , very minimal command line required on your part.
Only thing to make it better would be an interface to either move the apps back to phone or integrate it so it would ask you when you install an app where to put it. But I am very happy with it. 16GB might be over kill , I have a 8 GB but they say not to go over 1.5 GB with the Ext2 partition, so while you will have 6.5 ( relative ) GB of space for Movies,Images, MP3's, Uninstalled apps, you are really limited to the 1.5GB for apps , well plus internal phone memory I guess. But for phone apps that's probably way more than enough.
question: how do you partition a 16gb sdcard? all the numbers and all that. ive done an 8 gb sd card and that was easy cause i was working with mb's. now with gb im lost. i got to parted and i typed up print and got 16.1gb if you could help me with the numbers for fat32,ext2/3,linux-swap. i would greatly appreciate it...
Personally, I would reccoment switching to a Cyanogen ROM. It's based off the same source as JF, but one of the features it has is automatic Apps2SD. This means you but have to push files here and there, whuch believe me can be a pain. It does still require an ext partition which you would have to format your self, but after that it will work without and modifications.
Do no more then 512 MB for your ext2(3,4) partition
Follow this guide for the card partitioning. Flash CM's rom and it will do apps2sd for you automatically.
Your other card is most likely not all lost and could be salvaged still, I would look into it if I was you, 16gb cards are not cheap.
And for the last time: it is Jeusus FREKE not Jesus Freak, Have some respect for the one who layed the foundation for us, at least enough to spell his name correctly.
AdrianK said:
Personally, I would reccoment switching to a Cyanogen ROM. It's based off the same source as JF, but one of the features it has is automatic Apps2SD. This means you but have to push files here and there, whuch believe me can be a pain. It does still require an ext partition which you would have to format your self, but after that it will work without and modifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that, and also jf won't be doing ROM any more :[
http://jf.andblogs.net/

Flashed Desire Sense rom, now virtually no internal memory??

Hi guys
I switched from my x10 to a nexus one last week, really wanted to try out Froyo, multitouch, and all the goodies that come with that.
I flashed a desire sense rom onto my nexus a couple of days ago. I didn't bother to check what the internal memory was on first boot, and perhaps I should have, but hopefully you can help anyway.
I used titanium backup to restore all of my apps. However, I got to a certain point, and my internal memory was full. So I had to cancel the process, and then start a new batch process in titanium backup to move all the apps to the sd card. This seemed fine, I started again to restore all the previously unrestored apps. Then, sooner than before, the same thing happened again. So I cancelled the process and moved all apps to the sd card. This went on, to the point where I'm at now, that I have so little internal memory I can't install any more apps! Even though I have supposedly shifted all my apps to the sd card. I have no idea what has happened this memory, where has it gone? How do I reclaim it? What is it that is taking it up, if all my apps are on my sd card instead? :-S
Thanks for the help as always guys, any tips are much appreciated.
Download DiskUsage from the market (you may have to uninstall something first).
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
When you restore from titanium after flashing a rom just restore missing apps and data NOT all system data, just fyi
or just do basic apps you need
if you are going to run sense roms you should use amon_ra 2.0.0 to set up an ext3 partition. Some roms move the a2sd auto after you reboot right after flashing rom and some use Dark Tremor that they include in rom. Just need to be sure.
ken
Thanks for the tip about titanium, I'll remember that for the next time.
I ran DiskUsage, seems I have 96.3MB of system data... Is all of this essential, or is there any way for me to clear some of it? How did it all get there in the first place?
Thanks guys.
that seems awful high for system mem free. sure it isn't internal free memory your seeing
not familiar with diskusage, if it shows all, good
i like quick system shows all mem info. maybe just duplicates diskusage, don't know
interested to know internal free memory
According to disk usage, out of a total of 196.2MB internal memory,
79.8MB is used by apps (presumably those which must be stored locally)
96.3MB system data
and 20.2MB free space.
Does this help?
rugmankc said:
that seems awful high for system mem free. sure it isn't internal free memory your seeing
not familiar with diskusage, if it shows all, good
i like quick system shows all mem info. maybe just duplicates diskusage, don't know
interested to know internal free memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ask the right questions, that is not a large amount of system memory if he is using the new sense 2.0 roms
, are you using the new desireHD rom / mytouch 4g, with sense 2.0, these roms are large, leaving very little space on the device, if it is one of these you will have setup an ext partition on your sdcard,
if you have flashed the desireHD rom plug your phone into pc
from cmd type
adb shell stop
adb shell
a2sd repair
hit ctrl+c to back out
adb shell start
this should move all apps from the /data/app partition into your sd-ext partition, which has much more free space
those don't sound right, doesn't it say "internal free memory" and 20.63mb free which is the internal is very low
I go back into TB and scroll down and delete apps from previous rom and then refresh. If you did select "restore all apps and system data" may be why internal is low. Don't think you cancahnge that till next rom flash. If it is working you can nandroid for now and think about Dark Tremor.
I used "eViL-NXSense-v.1.25", this was the ROM that I flashed.
How much free memory would you expect with this? And also, how come the memory went down as I installed apps, even though I moved them to the external memory?
petecdun said:
I used "eViL-NXSense-v.1.25", this was the ROM that I flashed.
How much free memory would you expect with this? And also, how come the memory went down as I installed apps, even though I moved them to the external memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right, an AOSP rom will leave you with about 70-90 MB, not exactly sure with a sense rom but i doubt there would me much left to play with as the nexus was built without sense
the reason your space still goes down is because when you install the app, it is dexopted and the code is optimized, this optimized code is specific for your phone and is stored on your data partition, so even though your moving the actual app to your sdcard, the optimized code (Dalvik cache) is still stored on your phone, as the same for any app data.
my advice, and what i always use is Apps2Ext this is using a seperate partition on your memory card dedicated to installing apps, if you have one setup already great, if not
backup everything on your SDcard and partition it with your recovery software, when asked, choose 512MB ext, 0 swap, and the rest (FAT), copy all your stuff back to your SDcard, as well as this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715940
flash that through the recovery, it will move all your apps from the data/app folder to the new partition you made on your sdcard and link data/app to that folder so any new apps you install will automatically be installed there
I have MicroMod2.10 sense which is auto a2sd, you need an ext3 partition to get more free.
I have 93mb free internal. Normal can be 75 to 120
Your system free mem sounds high
FYI: If you partition with amon or rommgr/cwmod it wipes sd card.
I just messed up my sdcard and had to reformat it, not ext partition, left it alone, thru Mini Partition Tool Wizard and sd card reader. The reader is the only thing that confirms I have ext 3. DT always shows ext2 and rommgr seems to do only ext2. Amon can do ext3, 512mb, 0 Swap
You need to get in habit of backing sdcard regularly, not necessarily all everytime, if a particular folder like videos or pics hasn't changed. They are high mem only.
Beat You bagofcrap24
I usually am on the losing end
Ken

[Q] HELP TY

CM7 can make you install apps on the sd card, how does it differ from app2sd or app2ext? i have been trying to decide if i should partition my new sd card or its not necessary. There must be an advantage to have app2ext right?
Thank you.
CM7 basically allows you to move all applications using Froyo's app2sd mode. Even ones that have disabled it (like live wallpapers and widgets as those won't work when installed that way).
app2sdext works differently as it will install apps directly to an ext partition on your sdcard (that you manually have to set up). This functionality is NOT build into CyanogenMod, but is easily added with a number of different apps/scripts. This will give you a lot more free space on your phone, and all apps can be installed there regardless of whether they have widgets or have services running. Most app2sdext options will also give you the option of moving the dalvik cache to the sdcard which will save you a substantial amount of space on your internal memory.
Basically, if you want a lot of memory intensive apps, your only decent option with a Nexus One is an app2sdext solution. (I have it with a 1GB partition, and I will soon either need to resize it or delete apps... adding app2sdext was the second best thing I ever did to my phone behind installing CyanogenMod on it.)
bassmadrigal said:
CM7 basically allows you to move all applications using Froyo's app2sd mode. Even ones that have disabled it (like live wallpapers and widgets as those won't work when installed that way).
app2sdext works differently as it will install apps directly to an ext partition on your sdcard (that you manually have to set up). This functionality is NOT build into CyanogenMod, but is easily added with a number of different apps/scripts. This will give you a lot more free space on your phone, and all apps can be installed there regardless of whether they have widgets or have services running. Most app2sdext options will also give you the option of moving the dalvik cache to the sdcard which will save you a substantial amount of space on your internal memory.
Basically, if you want a lot of memory intensive apps, your only decent option with a Nexus One is an app2sdext solution. (I have it with a 1GB partition, and I will soon either need to resize it or delete apps... adding app2sdext was the second best thing I ever did to my phone behind installing CyanogenMod on it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why didnt i think of that? thank you for your reply... now i should decide whether to do it now or wait till i have reached maybe about a hundred apps. by the way does it have any effect on the speed of the phone if you do that?
I am on cm7 and decided to put cache apps on sd card using ta utility is there any other new apps like that? ta
Can you do this with rooted stock?
lolobabes said:
why didnt i think of that? thank you for your reply... now i should decide whether to do it now or wait till i have reached maybe about a hundred apps. by the way does it have any effect on the speed of the phone if you do that?
I am on cm7 and decided to put cache apps on sd card using ta utility is there any other new apps like that? ta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a class 4 32GB card, and I didn't notice any appreciable difference in speed. I have moved my apps and dalvik cache to the sdcard using DarkTremor's a2sd. I currently have 260 apps installed on my phone, and that is pushing the internal phone space and the 1GB partition I set up for ext. I am about to bug danger-rat for his instructions on how he resized his internal partitions to give the data residing on the phone more space (I will basically shrink the cache partition and I am looking at resizing my ext partition to 1.5GB or 2GB.
I couldn't live without this anymore. I don't know how I went so long without it. It is so nice to just browse the online market and click install on countless apps without worrying about your space.
If you want to try and move the app data (resides in /data/data) to the sdcard, I have heard that it is recommended to have a class 10 card to keep up with speed requirements. I am not sure how many apps support that.
brettbellaire said:
Can you do this with rooted stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you can. You would have to have a custom recovery. The main thing I am not sure is if it will mount the ext partition. If you have a custom recovery, do a nandroid backup (just in case it doesn't work), flash the zip for DarkTremor, and reboot the phone (the first boot will take longer).
brettbellaire said:
Can you do this with rooted stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you can.
bassmadrigal said:
I have a class 4 32GB card, and I didn't notice any appreciable difference in speed. I have moved my apps and dalvik cache to the sdcard using DarkTremor's a2sd. I currently have 260 apps installed on my phone, and that is pushing the internal phone space and the 1GB partition I set up for ext. I am about to bug danger-rat for his instructions on how he resized his internal partitions to give the data residing on the phone more space (I will basically shrink the cache partition and I am looking at resizing my ext partition to 1.5GB or 2GB.
I couldn't live without this anymore. I don't know how I went so long without it. It is so nice to just browse the online market and click install on countless apps without worrying about your space.
If you want to try and move the app data (resides in /data/data) to the sdcard, I have heard that it is recommended to have a class 10 card to keep up with speed requirements. I am not sure how many apps support that.
I believe you can. You would have to have a custom recovery. The main thing I am not sure is if it will mount the ext partition. If you have a custom recovery, do a nandroid backup (just in case it doesn't work), flash the zip for DarkTremor, and reboot the phone (the first boot will take longer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply i think i read on darktremors post class 4 will do for the data2sd. I have class 4 16GB sd card would 1GB good for the ext? ty
It really depends on how much you think you will be installing. I did a 1GB partition on mine, but now that I install most of the Amazon free daily apps, that space is dwindling quickly. I have programs that will resize the partition for me, but most will have to wipe the card and partition it manually. I do have the install location set to automatic, so it allows developers to specify whether they want it in the "internal" (really it is on the sdext partition, but to the phone it is internal) or external using the froyo method. The Angry Bird apps all default to install on the sdcard, so my installed app base is even larger than 1GB.
bassmadrigal said:
... adding app2sdext was the second best thing I ever did to my phone behind installing CyanogenMod on it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
is it true that cwm sets the partition to ext3 by default? unlike in ra recovery where you still need to convert it? ta
I have heard that it creates it in ext3, but right now, DTa2sd is showing that it is a ext2 partition. I can't figure out how to find out for sure while the card is in the phone. Either way, it is getting mounted as an ext2 partition.
temasek said:
I thought CWM will create ext3 by default? Your steps are ok, np.
Anyway when u read the ext partition type in android, most likely u will see ext2 if u are using official DT script cuz of the auto syntax it uses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
then it maybe so, this was posted on the darktremor thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14134665#post14134665
Well, whether or not it is formatted as an ext3 partition, Android is still mounting mine as an ext2 partition.
Code:
mount | grep ext
NOTE: the "|" is called a pipe. On the keyboard it is the shift option on the backslash key "\". I don't know exactly where it is on the stock keyboard, but on swype it is located under the "D" key when the keyboard has the shift key pressed and you access it by longpressing.
To get your sdcard to ext3, you just need to turn on journaling. You can do this through adb while in the recovery (because you need the partition unmounted to do this).
Code:
adb reboot recovery
adb shell
mount system
e2fsk /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
reboot
Supposedly Android should auto-mount this as ext3 on boot (which you can check with the first command). At that point, I don't think it will matter what a2sd shows. As the writing of the journal (the big thing with ext3, since it helps minimize write errors on a bad shutdown) is done at the OS level, not the a2sd level.

[Q] Use full Nook eMMC capacity for CM internal storage?

Just got my Nook Color tonight. I booted it from a CWM microSD card, installed CM 7.1 stable, gapps, and ran ROM Manager to install CWM to internal memory.
When I go to Menu, Settings, Storage, under the 'Internal Storage' heading, it says "Total space" of 5.09 GB and "Available space" of 4.68 GB. (One app installed so far)
Looking farther down the screen, it shows /mnt/eemc to have 1.00 GB of space.
Is there a way to combine them so that I have 5.68 GB of usable internal space to install apps to? Also, are those two the full available capacity of the eMMC storage? If not, can it be enlarged to maximum?
Also, further down the screen, it shows /mnt/usbdisk, with no space. Should it be left intact, or can it be safely removed to limit my confusion?
Thanks!
+1 to your question.
I'm gonna use my NC only as a tablet not any book reading so I don't think that 1GB is required.
Still let's wait for a dev. to give expert advice about this and possibly a how-to...
I would leave /mnt/usbdisk alone as it will be useful if you decide to use flash drives through nook tweeks in the usb section. As for the emmc data area, you can store data there with no problem if you are not going to use the nook as an e-reader.
By downloading the nook tweeks app, you will have access to the micro usb port (through an adapter) to transfer data between the nook and a flash drive or (using a powered hub) a card reader. You can also transfer data between the nook and a camera to directly save photos to the nook or view them. Usb host mode opens the nook up to another level and makes it a very functional tablet.
I use my nook with a digital camera on photo shoots so that I can preview my shots on a larger screen than that of the camera. You can check out my threads here concerning host mode. PM me if I can be of any assistance.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
SweetBearCub said:
Just got my Nook Color tonight. I booted it from a CWM microSD card, installed CM 7.1 stable, gapps, and ran ROM Manager to install CWM to internal memory.
When I go to Menu, Settings, Storage, under the 'Internal Storage' heading, it says "Total space" of 5.09 GB and "Available space" of 4.68 GB. (One app installed so far)
Looking farther down the screen, it shows /mnt/eemc to have 1.00 GB of space.
Is there a way to combine them so that I have 5.68 GB of usable internal space to install apps to? Also, are those two the full available capacity of the eMMC storage? If not, can it be enlarged to maximum?
Also, further down the screen, it shows /mnt/usbdisk, with no space. Should it be left intact, or can it be safely removed to limit my confusion?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there, I know long time but iI have some info to share since I'm having the same configuration as yours.
The 'Internal Storage' you're seeing isn't exactly the emmc. Its just that cm7 doesn't know its put on an SD. And it thinks the second or third partition of the SD (i.e. cm7 system partition) is internal.
Also that /mnt/eemc is the actual internal memory and thus these 2 can't be linked. However, the nook has another 5gb emmc internal partition callednmedia which you can possibly combine with emmc.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
there are many threads about the NC partition layout and changing it. do a search. the 5g partition basically won't be used by your cm7 NC. the apps will go on the 1g. I repartitioned mine for 4g instead of 1g and 2g for /emmc. then you can set cm7 to swap the /emmc and /sdcard and then use the NC without an SD installed.
mr72 said:
there are many threads about the NC partition layout and changing it. do a search. the 5g partition basically won't be used by your cm7 NC. the apps will go on the 1g. I repartitioned mine for 4g instead of 1g and 2g for /emmc. then you can set cm7 to swap the /emmc and /sdcard and then use the NC without an SD installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking something else.....
I wanted to merge internal data and media so as to get combined partition. I'm running CM7 off the SD card so I don't need to switch them. I was just thinking of merging them.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
therkr said:
I was thinking something else.....
I wanted to merge internal data and media so as to get combined partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I understand that's what you want to do. However, those partitions are not contiguous space. Search on Nook Color partitions and you will quickly see why.
Specifically, look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1094371
which links to here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13971291&postcount=110
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 is the "data" partition
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 is the "cache" partition
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8 is the "/mnt/emmc" partition
You are wanting to combine "data" and "/mnt/emmc". Problem is the "cache" partition is stuck in between them.
The other problem is your NC uses these two partitions for different things.
I think the suggestion I made before, which is to repartition for 2GB+4GB as in the first link, then do Settings -> CyanogenMod Settings -> Application -> Use internal storage to get them to swap, is the best, simplest solution with the lowest risk. This uses the 2G partition for whatever normally is used for /sdcard by most apps (downloads, misc. files, temp storage, etc.) and 4G partition for your apps, and leaves your whole SD card for use solely for your side-loaded media content. This schema will not interfere with further CM updates or unnecessarily change the default partition scheme for which most of the devs are writing code.
If you want to become a Linux & Android master of partitioning and storage management, then you can probably implement a more custom scheme. In my last job I was a software engineer working on a Linux-based network-attached storage appliance and I wrote most of the system code dealing with disk and partition management, so you could say I know a lot about it, but still I chose the easy path for my NC.
mr72 said:
If you want to become a Linux & Android master of partitioning and storage management, then you can probably implement a more custom scheme. In my last job I was a software engineer working on a Linux-based network-attached storage appliance and I wrote most of the system code dealing with disk and partition management, so you could say I know a lot about it, but still I chose the easy path for my NC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. But I'm just a highschool sophomore who loves technology. Can't do this unless someone has ever tried (and succeeded) before.
I'll probably use your method when I install CM7 (or CM9) onto emmc.
Sent from my MB502 using XDA App

[Guide] Link2SD (or Apps2SD) on Galaxy Tab A (SM T-580)

Hello folks. Before going further I need to apologize. I really fighted to use Link2SD on my Galaxy tablet and I succeeded more or less. I thought that my tentative could be useful to others. So I posted this topic.
I worked a little more, and now I am convinced that I was wrong from the beginning.
The reality is that Apps2SD and Link2SD are obsolete utilities.
Forget creating a second volume on your external SD Card :
- Android/Samsung declare your SD Card as corrupted and always wants to reformat it.
- TWRP mounts the wrong partition and you have to manually unmout it and remount the good one
- The partitions need to be declared with a wrong type and this is really not clean
etc...
I suggest that you do not loose your time, forget Link2SD, and read this excellent topic:
https://www.xda-developers.com/divi...gles-fuse-replacement-will-reduce-io-overhead
My Galaxy tab A has only 11 Go available for the user. I bought a 128 Go external SD card to extend both /storage/emulated/0 and /data.
When you first install your SD Card, Android automatically mount this card as /storage/xxxx-xxxx.
This is a FAT volume extended on all your SD Card (128 GB for me).
This is fine for storing ebooks, music, video, and your backups.
But impossible for Link2SD to move your apps on this volume and put a symbolic link on the previous location, because FAT is not a UNIX file system. Link2SD (or Apps2SD) needs a second disk volume on partition 2 (/dev/block/mmcblk1p2) formatted with a UNIX file system (ext4 is fine).
Of course you need to have rooted your device. [A non rooted tablet is not better than a vulgar iPhone ]
To re-partition my SD Card I used ROEHSOFT PARTITION TOOL (SD-USB). (I tried unsuccessfully Aparted, it crashed every time I launch it). ROEHSOFT is convenient but tricky to be used by an advanced user :
- You cannot create a partition in a specific slot (for example /dev/block/mmcblk1p2): It automatically use first slot for the first partition you create, the second slot for the following partition, and so on.
- If you try to foul it, deleting a partition and recreating it in another empty space, it suddenly decides to reorganize your 4 slots. It really wants /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 to be the first partition on your SD Card, /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 the following, etc...
- You cannot create a partition at a specific offset inside an empty space.
After fighting with ROEHSOFT I finally won. I discovered too late that "fdisk" is part of BusyBox. If you know "fdisk" my advice is to use it instead of fighting with a software which pretends to be user friendly but is too limited.
OK, stop bla-bla and work.
1 - Dismount your SD Card : Parameters/Device Maintenance/Storage/Menu-Storage Parameter/Dismount
2 - Delete the only one partition
3 - For a misterious reason, my Android was not happy with his FAT volume on /dev/block/mmcblk1p1. Link2SD wants his UNIX volume on /dev/block/mmcblk1p2. So, if you use ROEHSOFT you need now to create a small dummy partition on /dev/block/mmcblk1p1. For me I created a 4 Go partition to be used by Linux Deploy. This partition needs to be declared as FAT32 (LBA) but should not be formatted as a FAT file system. EXT4 is a good choice.
4 - Create the second partition for Link2SD. I suggest not too much space for it, because you probably want a huge space for the third partion. This partition needs to be declared as FAT32 (LBA) but should be formatted with a UNIX file system. EXT4 is a good choice.
5 - Create the third partition to be used as SD extension for Android. This partition should be very large : you will store on it your music, your movies, your ebooks, and above all your backups. This partition needs to be declared as FAT32 (LBA). I formatted this partition as a EXFAT file system.
6 - Reboot. If you are lucky you will get two notifications : one saying that you have a corrupted memory card, and one saying that you are ready for media files. You will get those two notifications at each reboot.
8 - Recreate mounting scripts inside Lin2SD (or Apps2SD), and reboot.
7 - If you are a UNIX user just type "df -h" in a terminal to verify that the two partitions are mounted with correct sizes).
8 - You can look what Android think of your partitioning :
/Parameters/Device Maintenance/Storage/Menu:Storage Parameter/.
Do not try to mount the two first volumes and NEVER try to reformat them with Android. Those volumes are declared as corrupted but this is normal. Android does not expect to find a UNIX file system on a partition declared FAT32.
If one day, you forget this and ask to Android to reformat a corrupted partition you will have the terrible surprise that Android will not only erase your partition, but will erase everything and recreate one and only one big empty partition. (I guess that you keep all your backups on this SD Card, like me, so this is a really bad surprise).
Do not ask me why Android does not want his SD-Card on first partition. I have no idea. I guess that Android or Samsung reserve this partition for something else.
Do not ask why I had to declared all my partitions as FAT32 even if two of them are formatted as EXT4. I just realized that this configuration works well after fighting during a full day.
I hope that this topic will help some of you.
You really need the second partition on the SD? Or you can have only one ex4 partition that fills all the SD? (Remove the FAT and only have one ext4)
Palatosino said:
You really need the second partition on the SD? Or you can have only one ex4 partition that fills all the SD? (Remove the FAT and only have one ext4)
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No, I tried but it doesn't work.
I found today a very interesting topic that I will try to master and hopefully wil, understand everything better :
https://www.xda-developers.com/divi...gles-fuse-replacement-will-reduce-io-overhead
Maybe I was wrong from the beginning : perhaps LinkSD and apps2SD are historic patch that are not useful anymore. Perhaps all the burden will be fixed easily just by not using those utilities anymore.
"sdcardfs" is something very new for me who is an old UNIX fellow. This seems to be a major improvement for Android.
I will update this topic when everything will be clear for me.
I didnt have this problem on android 6, but on android 7 . My phone wants to use ext4 as data partition and says its corrupted, link2sd detects this second partition normally, but my data partition fat 32 detected on phone settings and its says its ready but there is no option to mount it.
As far as i understand from this tutorial i need to make 1 fake ext4 partition say 1mb, then second partition ext4 for use with link2sd, and third partition fat32 for use as data storage ??
My phone is samsung j7 2016
So i did follow this , but now my phone wont detect fat32 and link2sd didnt detect 1 of other ext4 partitions
Looking for a definitive way to Root and use link2sd to have my SM-T580 use the SD as a primary parition for apps and data. Been researching and trying a dozen different methods already to no avail. Bonus if there's a way to roll it back easily. Am on the latest android release.
Thank you for all replies.
larpoux said:
I hope that this topic will help some of you.
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Click to collapse
You're my saviour, thank you ! I've been fighting on the same issue for days and didn't think about that trick to declare an ext partition as FAT32 !
I know you probably won't see this, but I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated this guide.
I have a Galaxy Tab S3 and every since going to a custom rom, I haven't been able to get this working which was such a pain with less than 23 gb of storage. The Rom improved my performance far too much for me to change back and every guide I attempted pointed me in the wrong direction but finally, I'm able to use my 120 gb SD card which has made my tablet worth using again.
To anyone who may attempt in the future,
I'm using Android 9 + Magisk. Using the Advanced type Mount script was the only way it get it functioning but I've had no issues with linking apps and no message regarding a corrupted SD card. It can take a few minutes on boot for everything to properly load in, but the apps all update and there's no performance/loading time issues.
Thanks again!

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