[Q] F2FS Confusion - Nexus 6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I finally decided to take the risk of converting to the F2FS file system. I'm a little confused on just how far I should go with it. The readily available guides only mention changing the cache and data partitions. I have made this jump, and I absolutely notice a difference. My question is that there is also an option to format the system partition to F2FS, but I can't find anything concrete on its benefits. Honestly I can't find much of anything about it. Does anyone have any experience with F2FS system partition conversion?

You don't write anything to system partition as it's pure read-only. F2FS would make zero difference. It's just a hassle making ROMs work with /system under F2FS.

Lawstorant said:
You don't write anything to system partition as it's pure read-only. F2FS would make zero difference. It's just a hassle making ROMs work with /system under F2FS.
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Thanks, that makes complete sense to me. So I'm done then? Just go with what I have?

donkeypunch1257 said:
Thanks, that makes complete sense to me. So I'm done then? Just go with what I have?
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Click to collapse
Don't format the system partition to F2FS. There is zero benefit from this since, as stated above, it is mounted as R/O at boot time, diminishing any positive effect F2FS may have the phone's performance (slower reads, faster writes, theoretically.) Anyways, most ROMs format /system to ext4 when being flashed, so there's that too. Just go with what you have, which is ext4.

Related

[Q] About filesystem conversion

Hi,
I was just thinking...we all have problems in our phones because of the RFS filesystem, couldn't we with a kernel supporting ext3 and a custom recovery, format all phone partitions in ext3 and then flash a custom rom?Instead of having just a partial conversion of the filesystem we'd have the full filesystem in ext3 resulting in a even bigger performance to our phone?
If this is already done, sorry i didn't knew.
I agree with your question. I wondered too, whether it's possible, but haven't seen any answer/information about this issue. Maybe someone of the devs could clarify this? It would be great!!
Let's hope that our dev machines say something about this

[Q] Wipe issue

I've been learning to edit and make ROMs for couple of months, some of the early works had been uploaded to a Chinese Milestone developers' BBS.
But there is a simple question which still confused me a lot. (- =)
Some senior developers in that Chinese BBS reminded their supporters in their threads to wipe before and AFTER applying the Rom in Open Recovery. But, why should we wipe AFTER applying the Rom? I've viewed some threads here, but none of them require to wipe after applying.
So I wonder if it is really necessary to wipe AFTER applying a new ROM. I'm very appreciate if you guys can answer my question and tell me why. Thx~~~
BTW, Xda is an excellent website. And it's much more professional than the BBS I used to visit. May you have a nice day~
It's a common myth. I'm not sure why it gets repeated over and over again.
One wipe is enough. Dalvik-cache is not populated again until the system is booting for the first time. While you are in recovery, it also doesn't matter if you wipe before or after you apply the update (unless the updater script in some particular update.zip also installs something to /data or /cache partition, which is not very common).
You can read cvpcs's thoughts on this matter here: http://cvpcs.org/blog/2011-06-05/time_to_wipe_data/cache
kabaldan said:
It's a common myth. I'm not sure why it gets repeated over and over again.
One wipe is enough. Dalvik-cache is not populated again until the system is booting for the first time. While you are in recovery, it also doesn't matter if you wipe before or after you apply the update (unless the updater script in some particular update.zip also installs something to /data or /cache partition, which is not very common).
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Click to collapse
Thanks a lot~ (I'm looking for some threads which can explain how "wipe" works. Actually I still got some problem about that, like " Why system app still maintain after wipe? Is it because those system app has a backup in Flash Memory, and it will restore after wipe the EEPROM?")
(This message is only for testing whether it is reply to the original poster or the people who answer it....)
[E]Xtreme said:
Thanks a lot~ (I'm looking for some threads which can explain how "wipe" works. Actually I still got some problem about that, like " Why system app still maintain after wipe? Is it because those system app has a backup in Flash Memory, and it will restore after wipe the EEPROM?")
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System apps are installed into a different partition (/system), which also holds the OS files. Wiping data and cache only wipes the /data and /cache partitions and leaves /system alone. Otherwise the phone wouldn't work at all.
Dave Lister said:
System apps are installed into a different partition (/system), which also holds the OS files. Wiping data and cache only wipes the /data and /cache partitions and leaves /system alone. Otherwise the phone wouldn't work at all.
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Click to collapse
Got it~ That's very kind of you.

F2FS support

People around i9300 kernel developement backported F2FS and managed to boot modified omnirom.
Should I bring this stuff to upstream?
GR0S said:
People around i9300 kernel developement backported F2FS and managed to boot modified omnirom.
Should I bring this stuff to upstream?
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Click to collapse
f2fs for external SD cards: Sure
f2fs for /data - Not until the next Android revision, you can put all the infrastructure there, but changing from ext4 to f2fs would require wiping /data
Entropy512 said:
f2fs for external SD cards: Sure
f2fs for /data - Not until the next Android revision, you can put all the infrastructure there, but changing from ext4 to f2fs would require wiping /data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wiping is okay.
We can try f2fs on /system, it gets formatted each time anyway. I know it won't give us massive performance boost, but it will be nice start point for now.
Why we can't use f2fs on /data?
Moto X has it already.
PS: can I use debian's arm binaries in recovery? Specifically f2fs tools.
GR0S said:
Wiping is okay.
We can try f2fs on /system, it gets formatted each time anyway. I know it won't give us massive performance boost, but it will be nice start point for now.
Why we can't use f2fs on /data?
Moto X has it already.
PS: can I use debian's arm binaries in recovery? Specifically f2fs tools.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because /data is currently ext4 on the device you specified initially, and you can't change filesystems without wiping. Making users wipe at this point in the 4.4 cycle is NOT OK.
Not much if any benefit of f2fs on /system - Moto G doesn't even use f2fs for /system (it does for /data)
Entropy512 said:
Because /data is currently ext4 on the device you specified initially, and you can't change filesystems without wiping. Making users wipe at this point in the 4.4 cycle is NOT OK.
Not much if any benefit of f2fs on /system - Moto G doesn't even use f2fs for /system (it does for /data)
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Anythng else? Will it work as intended if I will just patch kernel, patch device, format.
I remember Dees_Troy mentioned /data/media trickery may not work.

f2fs is not so good for /system

Hi, just reporting my findings on F2FS,
To use system partition in F2FS you need to convert rom, adjust scripts, etc.. so i was trying to find if it worth the hassle
Let's take in consideration two things:
1. F2FS have consistently better write speeds than EXT4 , but the same cant be said for read speeds.
2. EXT4 can become laggy when not trimmed, F2FS is always trimmed,
F2FS makes sense for /data and /cache partition but not for /system... /system partition have almost no changes so its 99% trimmed and usually read only
i used this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vog.com.aiv to benchmark bootup time in seconds
CM11 2305 nightly, /data and /cache in F2FS , only change is /system partition format (less is better)
ext4
32,06
28,55
28,01
28,13
27,08
27,77
f2fs
27,44
28,65
40,91
36,95
28,29
27,46
28,41
thanks for showing, but i still prefer using f2fs on system because some files in /system get called all time(i.e framework-res.apk),but its not that difference, our nand is already fast.
Even if it is not so good, it is still a step in the right direction.
I will probably try it at some point.
DZeros said:
Even if it is not so good, it is still a step in the right direction.
I will probably try it at some point.
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Click to collapse
F2fs is good, I'm using it, but Just for partitions with lots of writing operations only, simple as that.
And the big plus is that i don't need to worry with compatible roms and updates, just flash any rom updates, without any conversion, and flash kernel after..
Enviado de meu Nexus 4 usando Tapatalk
opssemnik said:
thanks for showing, but i still prefer using f2fs on system because some files in /system get called all time(i.e framework-res.apk),but its not that difference, our nand is already fast.
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Click to collapse
Read times for /system are not faster in f2fs, but it's up to you
Enviado de meu Nexus 4 usando Tapatalk
Thank you for pin pointing this out. A lot of people still believe F2FS will make their phones fly for some reason. I've tested a phone with F2FS next to another running EXT4 and there was no real world performance boost or anything of that sort. F2FS got higher benchmark scores. That's it. Its no a placebo effect but in real world performance it makes no difference.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
So, i'm on full F2FS. And i agree with your post. Is there anything i must do to use system as EXT4 or just flash not-f2fs-rom ?
This would explain why there is now a longer than normal delay every single time when I hit the home button that is not noticeable when system is ext4. When on ext4 system this delay was hardly noticeable and with f2fs it seems like there is lag but as soon as it does go home I can then open the app drawer immediately with no lag whatsoever. If it was normally slow or laggy to go home then it took an equal amount of time to open app drawer as the lag existed everywhere, here it is only on the home button.
okanb3 said:
So, i'm on full F2FS. And i agree with your post. Is there anything i must do to use system as EXT4 or just flash not-f2fs-rom ?
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flash any rom, and then flash one of those jolinard f2fs kernels with filename ending in auto.. they work with any partition layout!
diogo.sena said:
flash any rom, and then flash one of those jolinard f2fs kernels with filename ending in auto.. they work with any partition layout!
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There must be another way, with this method,the rom doesnt boot.
ashishv said:
There must be another way, with this method,the rom doesnt boot.
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Click to collapse
What rom and what kernel exactly did you use?
diogo.sena said:
What rom and what kernel exactly did you use?
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Click to collapse
I flashed velocity rom, rebooted into recovery again and flashed franko kernel 208 f2fs. The phone didnt get past boot logo.
Then i formatted system, flashed velocity ext4 again, this time without installing kernel. Surprisingly, the rom booted, but the phone was asking password to decrypt storage, ehich left it unusable. So i tried to go back to f2fs rom by formatting system and lashing f2fs velocity, but here again the phone didnt boot past the boot screeen. Finally i had to flash formatpartitions.zip , followed by flashing f2fs velocity, and finally the rom booted. BTW my phone was off for 2 days because of this lol.:laugh:
ashishv said:
I flashed velocity rom, rebooted into recovery again and flashed franko kernel 208 f2fs. The phone didnt get past boot logo.
Then i formatted system, flashed velocity ext4 again, this time without installing kernel. Surprisingly, the rom booted, but the phone was asking password to decrypt storage, ehich left it unusable. So i tried to go back to f2fs rom by formatting system and lashing f2fs velocity, but here again the phone didnt boot past the boot screeen. Finally i had to flash formatpartitions.zip , followed by flashing f2fs velocity, and finally the rom booted. BTW my phone was off for 2 days because of this lol.:laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, at least you solve it, but next time, try to use twrp from multirom thread instead of flashing fromatpartitions.zip, there's a feature to change back and forth between ext4 and f2fs for any desired partition, and use franco from this link
http://mirror.lnx.im/android/mako/franco/
( i used semaphore auto version, but it should work the same way for franco )
diogo.sena said:
Well, at least you solve it, but next time, try to use twrp from multirom thread instead of flashing fromatpartitions.zip, there's a feature to change back and forth between ext4 and f2fs for any desired partition, and use franco from this link
http://mirror.lnx.im/android/mako/franco/
( i used semaphore auto version, but it should work the same way for franco )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Twrp with ext4/f2fs format option for mako
http://d-h.st/g59
Multirom app, which will install the recovery without fastboot.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tassadar.multirommgr

[QUESTION] Missing GBs?? Maybe Partitions? Questions Post-Brick!

Finally I've got everything installed and set up and logged in, etc, after reviving from brick. But then I just realized... This is a 128GB phone and things are saying I'm low on space (kinda)...
Anyone have any idea what can cause this or how to fix? The only thing in my mind that might be relevant is that the Data partition is in F2FS when before my huge issue I had it in EXT4? The OP level 2 support guy used a 7.1.1 factory image to revive my device. Can this matter?
Settings/Storage it's showing SYSTEM is taking up 89GB?!?!?!
Mixplorer says all of Internal Storage is only using 1.62GB or so
Desktop shows the phone as having 24.8GB storage in TOTAL with 6.9GB used
I don't know how to interpret these screenshots at all or what to do about it...
Edit: A full TWRP backup of every partition checked in the options is 7.75GB in total (as displayed in Windows), system image & all!
Edit2: Also in TWRP, there is no option for resizing the Data partition (which is f2fs, every other partition is EXT4) ...
If no one has any ideas... This is the only thing that seems like it makes sense to try doing to switch data from f2fs to ext4 and hopefully not have to clean flash? https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/...-without-losing-internal-storage-data.439999/
But if that doesn't work, and a regular clean flash doesn't work, that's what I'm most concerned about before even messing with it... JUST got it all set up perfectly after reviving from bricked state...
Switch to ext4, as its the most common Linux' file system. f2fs seems to be the culprit. And you'd better done a clean flash.
Erase userdata partition from fastboot and then format it (also via fastboot). Should work.
Don't forget to make a backup of you existing data (including internal).
As warned by many, F2FS is unstable and causes many errors. Try switching to Ext4, via ADB. This ought to give you the corrected partitions.
Confirmed
Just posting to confirm the above messages.
i converted my system to ff2fs and my system was taking up a little over 40Gb.
Reverting back to ext4 sorted it

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