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Is there a way to dualboot roms?
Sent from my GT540 using Tapatalk
I really know nothing about dualbooting but i don't think the optimus swift has the guts for it
No.
someone correct me if i
am wrong, but our phones can't dualboot.
It could be possible by creating new partitions. For example, have two system partitions and two data partitions. We can flash one boot.img to the boot partition for the ROM to automatically boot, and flash another to the recovery partition. So when you hold home, it will boot into the second boot.img instead.(recovery images are exactly the same as boot images but with a modified ramdisk that runs the recovery program)
Where in the second boot.img, we can modify the init.rc file to mount a different partition as /system (a data2system rom works sort of like this, init.rc is modified so the data partition is mounted as /system, and system is mounted to /data, this is how you get more space as data is stored on /system, but Android thinks its acessing the data partition, where it is really accessing system) We can use this principle to dual boot.
Now, how will this work. Somehow split the system and data partitions into two bits (2 system partitions and 2 data) If we have the 1st ROM on the original system partition, and use its original boot.img, and then have the 2nd rom on the different system partition, and modify the ramdisk to use the different partitions as /system and /data, we could have a working dual boot.
However, there are some problems.
1. Our device has a NAND that is 512MB in size. It is split into:
Boot
Recovery
System
Userdata
Cache
and some other miscellaneous partitions. System is 250MB in size, and data is 134MB (under stock partition sizes) These split would barely fit any rom on it and hardly any data either. Maybe if the device had 1GB ROM, it may be different.
2. It may require some bootloader tweaking to create these new partitions, and for the device to recognise them.
Also, why would you want to dual boot your phone anyway? You have a computer for that
App
There is this app named BootManager
I've tried it out but this can't backup the boot partition. It's currently not supported. Maybe someone could try it out.
Keep in mind that it needs to be purchased for 'LEGAL' use.
jhonnyx1000 said:
There is this app named BootManager
I've tried it out but this can't backup the boot partition. It's currently not supported. Maybe someone could try it out.
Keep in mind that it needs to be purchased for 'LEGAL' use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that! Gives an error when backing up boot image!
Sent from my GT540 using Tapatalk
effortless. said:
Also, why would you want to dual boot your phone anyway? You have a computer for that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I don't
Sent from my GT540 using Tapatalk
It is possible to dualboot. A russian guy already made it for us. It was meant to dualboot 2.1 and 2.2 but that rom has never made it to beta stadium.
The idea is that a second rom is stored on the sd card. I've tried to get it working but i didnt succed. But it should work.
It was on 4pda.ru. when i am on my computer, i will post a link.
Joost
Sent from my GT540 using Tapatalk
Couldn't we use the same principal as running Ubuntu chroot? As I thought chroot and loop devices where originally for HTC to test builds? Correct me if I'm wrong here
But I always thought if you had say a 32gb SD you could have 2 or 3 roms plus a couple Linux distros running on the device through chroot not same time obviously device would handle 2 max?
Also I was looking at a article to run native Linux on the eee pad transformer it looked like all they did was swap the boot.img or some kind of script so it ran off the SD card straight away. So my question would be could you add a feature to recovery that would allow you to change boot.img or script for each rom/distro then reboot straight into it making the device multi boot?
Sent from my GT540RR using XDA App
This is the topic about the dualboot, with download links to the 'dualboot' boot, and some explanation about the partitions on the sdcard.
http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=200838
Joost
liamwilli said:
Is there a way to dualboot roms?
Sent from my GT540 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should be possible. But, would require customizing boot.img and boot loader.
ErnuB said:
I really know nothing about dualbooting but i don't think the optimus swift has the guts for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
effortless. said:
It could be possible by creating new partitions. For example, have two system partitions and two data partitions. We can flash one boot.img to the boot partition for the ROM to automatically boot, and flash another to the recovery partition. So when you hold home, it will boot into the second boot.img instead.(recovery images are exactly the same as boot images but with a modified ramdisk that runs the recovery program)
Where in the second boot.img, we can modify the init.rc file to mount a different partition as /system (a data2system rom works sort of like this, init.rc is modified so the data partition is mounted as /system, and system is mounted to /data, this is how you get more space as data is stored on /system, but Android thinks its acessing the data partition, where it is really accessing system) We can use this principle to dual boot.
Now, how will this work. Somehow split the system and data partitions into two bits (2 system partitions and 2 data) If we have the 1st ROM on the original system partition, and use its original boot.img, and then have the 2nd rom on the different system partition, and modify the ramdisk to use the different partitions as /system and /data, we could have a working dual boot.
However, there are some problems.
1. Our device has a NAND that is 512MB in size. It is split into:
Boot
Recovery
System
Userdata
Cache
and some other miscellaneous partitions. System is 250MB in size, and data is 134MB (under stock partition sizes) These split would barely fit any rom on it and hardly any data either. Maybe if the device had 1GB ROM, it may be different.
2. It may require some bootloader tweaking to create these new partitions, and for the device to recognise them.
Also, why would you want to dual boot your phone anyway? You have a computer for that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your idea is right and would work but we can't afford to loose the recovery. It's important when modding. Unlike fastboot or KDZ modes, using recovery leaves one partition untouched. ie, when using recovery, the recovery partition is never modified. It doesn't touch boot loader either. It's almost impossible to brick a phone using recovery. And, if something goes wrong with other partitions, you can always boot into recovery and have stuff restored or fixed with an update.
jhonnyx1000 said:
There is this app named BootManager
I've tried it out but this can't backup the boot partition. It's currently not supported. Maybe someone could try it out.
Keep in mind that it needs to be purchased for 'LEGAL' use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an HTC only app. It's an xda project. You can get it for free. Hit on to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1184173
joostvhoek said:
It is possible to dualboot. A russian guy already made it for us. It was meant to dualboot 2.1 and 2.2 but that rom has never made it to beta stadium.
The idea is that a second rom is stored on the sd card. I've tried to get it working but i didnt succed. But it should work.
It was on 4pda.ru. when i am on my computer, i will post a link.
Joost
Sent from my GT540 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Would love to try it out.
Danzano said:
Couldn't we use the same principal as running Ubuntu chroot? As I thought chroot and loop devices where originally for HTC to test builds? Correct me if I'm wrong here
But I always thought if you had say a 32gb SD you could have 2 or 3 roms plus a couple Linux distros running on the device through chroot not same time obviously device would handle 2 max?
Also I was looking at a article to run native Linux on the eee pad transformer it looked like all they did was swap the boot.img or some kind of script so it ran off the SD card straight away. So my question would be could you add a feature to recovery that would allow you to change boot.img or script for each rom/distro then reboot straight into it making the device multi boot?
Sent from my GT540RR using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
chroot is not a real dual boot solution. It's based on the idea of virtualization and so it has performance issues on a low end phone like GT540. When using chroot, parts of the Android OS as well as the other OS is run at the same time. This would be idea only in faster devices with more RAM.
And, yes, if you can modify the boot.img or recovery.img to boot into other partitions, it would be awesome. The beauty of linux is that you can directly mount images as a disk unlike in Windows where you need a separate software. Due to this, mounting a different partition would be easy but modifying the boot.img or bootloader is the risky part. If you do it wrong, your phone may get permanently bricked.
joostvhoek said:
This is the topic about the dualboot, with download links to the 'dualboot' boot, and some explanation about the partitions on the sdcard.
http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=200838
Joost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
joostvhoek said:
This is the topic about the dualboot, with download links to the 'dualboot' boot, and some explanation about the partitions on the sdcard.
http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=200838
Joost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand or talk Russian. Would anybody be kind enough to find out what modifications did he do to the boot.img and/or bootloader? If we do the same modifications, we might be able to dualboot.
But, there's one problem, the boot.img is not same for all versions. Maybe that is why you can't dual boot.
It wouldn't work on the gt540. We have a dual boot for the defy which has only 90mb of ram left Max when running dual system. Usually I'm running 190mb ram on stock and 240mb on miui. Major slow down on dual boot. So no point
Sent from my MB525 using xda premium
keewanchoapsss said:
It wouldn't work on the gt540. We have a dual boot for the defy which has only 90mb of ram left Max when running dual system. Usually I'm running 190mb ram on stock and 240mb on miui. Major slow down on dual boot. So no point
Sent from my MB525 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are talking about chroot. In real dual boot, only one OS is loaded.
nibras_reeza said:
I don't understand or talk Russian. Would anybody be kind enough to find out what modifications did he do to the boot.img and/or bootloader? If we do the same modifications, we might be able to dualboot.
But, there's one problem, the boot.img is not same for all versions. Maybe that is why you can't dual boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I'll be looking into this one tomorrow, I'd like to be able to have a dual boot... this would enable me to store testing roms onto sdcard and boot into them "safely" without forever having to go through backup & restore each time...
If I can crack it... I'll post it!!
Edit: I don't read Russian either... but I can reverse engineer things like this! -- Just had a brief look at it... I should be able to port his modifications over to another image, but as you said... it'll only work if both OS's are compatible with the one boot.img ... and this could take some trial and error.
Second Addition: Not to mention... it could cause issues for some people that use ext partition on sdcard for apps.... hmmz, will have to keep that in mind. (People like me ya'see lol)
olite said:
Oh I'll be looking into this one tomorrow, I'd like to be able to have a dual boot... this would enable me to store testing roms onto sdcard and boot into them "safely" without forever having to go through backup & restore each time...
If I can crack it... I'll post it!!
Edit: I don't read Russian either... but I can reverse engineer things like this! -- Just had a brief look at it... I should be able to port his modifications over to another image, but as you said... it'll only work if both OS's are compatible with the one boot.img ... and this could take some trial and error.
Second Addition: Not to mention... it could cause issues for some people that use ext partition on sdcard for apps.... hmmz, will have to keep that in mind. (People like me ya'see lol)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People who use ext for moving apps shouldn't face problems. Android is not Windows. =P It can handle unlimited number of partitions. Looking at the guide, I could understand that the method uses multiple ext partitions. People using sd-ext for apps would only need to increase the mtdblockn(where n is a number) by 1 or 2 if using swap as well.
Yup. Both OSs will work only if the boot.imgs are compatible. That means we might not be able to run 1.6 and 2.3. However, this wouldn't be applicable if you can loop the boot.imgs as well.
ie a setup likes.
BOOT has a GRUB like boot loader which is compatible with Android is SYSTEM.
SYSTEM partition has one OS.
Then, there will be different BOOT and SYSTEM is each of the sd-ext partition or they will be stored as imgs in SD.
When device boots, it will enter BOOT. Then, this will present a menu which will allow you to select OS. If you choose, default, it will load SYSTEM from phone. If you choose another, it will loop to a BOOT from the SD-ext which will loads its relevant SYSTEM from SD/SDEXT.
That's just my idea though. Basically, if you can get an idea of the modifications that need to be made to BOOT.img to loop mount another partition as BOOT or SYSTEM, then the problem is 80% solved.
nibras_reeza said:
People who use ext for moving apps shouldn't face problems. Android is not Windows. =P It can handle unlimited number of partitions. Looking at the guide, I could understand that the method uses multiple ext partitions. People using sd-ext for apps would only need to increase the mtdblockn(where n is a number) by 1 or 2 if using swap as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, yer I worded that wrong... I meant it *could* be a problem if they just followed his guide steps (since it doesn't account for existing use of ext on sdcard), but you'r right this isn't really a problem... it just requires an additional partition. Also, I'd probably change the partition layout instead so that applications such as Link2SD would still be able to "automatically" (it only checks partition #1) locate the ext partition intended for apps.
Something like this...
Partition #0: FAT32
Partition #1: EXT2/3 <-- sd-ext2
Partition #2: EXT2/3 <-- data
Partition #3: EXT2/3 <-- system
Partition #4: SWAP
This would allow most internal OS's to continue to function as per normal without any script modifications.
(Most swap mount scripts are just blind scripts, they simply try mounting each partition from #1 to #9 as swap... so swap location shouldn't be an issue)
#!/system/bin/sh
#
# find and enable swap
#
echo 30 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
# find swap partition
for PART in `seq 0 9`;
do
swapon /dev/block/mmcblk0p$PART
if [ $? = 0 ]; then
break
fi
done
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nibras_reeza said:
That's just my idea though. Basically, if you can get an idea of the modifications that need to be made to BOOT.img to loop mount another partition as BOOT or SYSTEM, then the problem is 80% solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And a damn good one at that... sadly I think this might just be a lil bit out of my reach... for now! While I should be able to get it to work for 2.1-2.3 (Since they essentially use the same boot), I honestly don't know where to begin with boot looping (I understand the concept yes, just not sure how to implement it... wonder if I can bake a grub version for this...)
This idea is really exciting. I wish i could help but as it stands, based on my extreme lack of know-how, i'd be as much help as a sack of potatoes XD
Sent from my GT540 using XDA App
olite said:
lol, yer I worded that wrong... I meant it *could* be a problem if they just followed his guide steps (since it doesn't account for existing use of ext on sdcard), but you'r right this isn't really a problem... it just requires an additional partition. Also, I'd probably change the partition layout instead so that applications such as Link2SD would still be able to "automatically" (it only checks partition #1) locate the ext partition intended for apps.
Something like this...
Partition #0: FAT32
Partition #1: EXT2/3 <-- sd-ext2
Partition #2: EXT2/3 <-- data
Partition #3: EXT2/3 <-- system
Partition #4: SWAP
This would allow most internal OS's to continue to function as per normal without any script modifications.
(Most swap mount scripts are just blind scripts, they simply try mounting each partition from #1 to #9 as swap... so swap location shouldn't be an issue)
And a damn good one at that... sadly I think this might just be a lil bit out of my reach... for now! While I should be able to get it to work for 2.1-2.3 (Since they essentially use the same boot), I honestly don't know where to begin with boot looping (I understand the concept yes, just not sure how to implement it... wonder if I can bake a grub version for this...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Porting grub eh? Hmm. I believe there should be an ARM version for grub but we might have trouble with the drivers and kernel. It might be a better idea to copy the menu layout from CWM recovery. The menu need not be intelligent.
As for me, I also don't know how to loop the boot images.
daggerxXxsin said:
This idea is really exciting. I wish i could help but as it stands, based on my extreme lack of know-how, i'd be as much help as a sack of potatoes XD
Sent from my GT540 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could always risk your phone for others by using the pre-alpha. xD
Porting grub eh? Hmm. I believe there should be an ARM version for grub but we might have trouble with the drivers and kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We wouldn't need a kernel for GRUB, as GRUB loads the kernel. We would have to modify the bootloader (or MBR) to use GRUB.
I am using an 8GB sd card to boot into CM7. I have checked the partitions and there is the "boot" partition which is really small, then a 1GB Nook Color partition, and a 5GB CM7 Partition.
I am not too concerned about moving partition sizes and such, I know there is some wasted space in there but I just want it to be stable rather than nit picking for space etc.
The problem is that when I am installing Android apps it comes up and tells me I am out of space. This doesn't make sense because both partitions are huge and I only have 1-2 apps installed and TONS of free space.
How can I get it to realize there is a ton of room?
Most android settings refer to saving "on the phone" or "on the SD" and I am not really sure which partition the OS thinks is "the phone".
MuGGzyx said:
I am using an 8GB sd card to boot into CM7. I have checked the partitions and there is the "boot" partition which is really small, then a 1GB Nook Color partition, and a 5GB CM7 Partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you used the SASD images by verygreen, then you need to check again... If that's all you see you need to set it up again... there should be 4 total partitions after running the SASD scripts
Ok so I did use verygreens image and created the little 116mb partition. I am reading some other threads that suggest resizing that before booting the Nook.
Is this first partition what the system later thinks is "the phone" for the purposes of installing apps?
If not, which partition does the SD booted Android system think the system drive is for the purposes of installing apps?
Does anyone out there know what causes 4EXT CWM and Amon Ra all (with custom tools) all to fail in regards to seeing a formatted cache partition on EXT-2.
I have DONE EVERYTHING I can possibly think of, from using Gpart in Ubuntu, to the phone itself. Many times in the past I have made it would just leave my 2 Gig cache partition empty because NOTHING works EVER!...
Did I miss something, can you even have 4 separate functional partitions with the Nexus 1 ?
The closest I have come to something really functional is with 4EXT, it seems to go through all the stages but when I check alignment I only get the first 2 partitions (fat-32 and EXT-1) EXT-2 says it is unformatted for some odd reason! This has been performed using a full card wipe on an external source. Even still everything is seems to go as planned until I check the card. With 4EXT I attempt to force a ext3 or 4 format and it restarts the recovery ! When I check A2SDGUI it says I only have 15 megabytes for cache.
I have used black rose and set it to 220/15/201 (dla5244), tried the latest versions of 4EXT and wasted many hours before posting...
CAN ANYONE HELP !!
Download SD Formatter from here, run the program and choose under Options:
FORMAT TYPE: FULL (OverWrite)
FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT: ON
This will format your µSD (be sure to backup your important stuff). When finished, try to make an ext4 partition with 4EXT recovery. You only need one ext4 partition (so no 2nd) and no swap.
Thank you for the fast response but I have tried that. Except I want this phone to work optimally and I have figured everything else out so it is hard to settle for mediocrity. I mean I know that 1 SD-EXT partition works... Even 1 + fat32 and SWAP but I can NEVER have the phone identify the SD-EXT2 partition... no matter what... In partition magic (terrabyte bootit) and of course Gpart in Ubuntu all indicate that everything is great. Except the phone doesn't use the partition and like I was saying before the 4EXT shows it as unformatted after it's format. When I force a format on the partition the software reboots !?!... And if I leave it claiming it's unformatted even though we may think it is, QND's MIUI can only see 15 megabyte cache partition !
But then why not just go back to stock roms and one partition? To your point it's hard to step back and use something less inclined for performance when it should work ? no ?
I know I am a NOOB BUT I also know that it seems like no one out there can offer CLOSURE on the matter. like "ohh that's because the N1 cannot identify a EXT2 partition" or "ohh... that's your SD card's fault it isn't aligned right etc."
I mean I can see others have had this problem and gave up, I don't want to give up unless it is a limitation of the hardware (?sd card?)
Another way to look at it is although beautiful and helpful for most... 4EXT should be focused on getting that to work, I would think... To your point everyone is confused and shouldn't have more than 2 partitions ? Doesn't seem right to me.
Anyways if you have any other ideas OR anyone else can think of a solution lets do it I want to invest time into this and make it work !!
Sincerely! !
Why should you have more than 2 partitions on your µSD? 1 fat32 for your pictures and videos and stuff, and if you don't have enough space for your apps, 1 ext4 for A2SD (maximum 1GB).
Swap is not necessary and in fact slows your system down. A thread about swap is somewere to be found here.
And why the 2GB cache partition? You already have a 15MB cache partition on your phone.. 220/15/201.
You really don't need more than 2 partitions on your µSD.
?
I am willing to accept that you are right that it isn't needed. But I am not using A2SD, I am using XPART. According to the guides I am read, the best way is with 3 or 4 partitions (Swap being the option). The Cache partition on the other hand makes sense because even with titanium backup I can see my 60 or so apps are storing a couple hundred megs in cache. So this way a dedicated partition for processing things once instead of multiple times would provide the fastest solution. Being that the n1 is not the top performer anymore (still my fave though ), any extra speed should help when I am using my phone day to day.
The QND MIUI mod by jbbandos has the following about XPART :
"You can use it with one FAT32 and one ext4 partition, as A2SD, which seems to be the more stable setup, but the recommended setup for speed is one FAT32, one large ext4 (for your data partition), one smaller ext4 (cache), and a swap partition. I'm not that much of a fan of a swap partition, as I am always afraid it will wear out the SD card precociously, but most people report it working well, and I prefer the single ext4 for stability, but YMMV. "
you can read more here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1084726
.......
Anyways that is what I want, and I will invest the time to get it. I believe that 4EXT is primarily in development to perform this function. But I have a problem, with the results. I realize that it may not be necessary but I would like to know the WHY as to why this doesn't work.
AS ALWAYS thank you for you help none the less..
Never used XPART, I didn't know they recommend this. I never used apps to ext scripts longer than a few days.
This is because I'd rather install 10 crappy apps less, than having a slower system. Then again, if I would use an apps to ext script, I would definitely go for stability .
Unfortunately I don't know what you could do now..
I found my previous QND build with XPROT using blackrose was good for like 7 months !!! I just wanted to update and get it working properly. I would HIGHLY recommend it as you phone sees like 1 gig of internal mem so all apps that have widgets are useful and don't need to go to SD. In my opinion it was more stable than stock !!! Honestly, great tool.
OH yeah and it is also much faster I have found !
When i tried to put my music there wasnt enough space. So my question is which partition does my music and such belong in and how to enlarge it using gparted or other partitioning tools so that i wont mess anything up.
It depends on which nook color you have. The original Color had emmc partitioned to 1GB data (for installing apps) and 5GB media (for storing music, etc.). About May of 2011 BN started shipping Colors with 5GB Data and 1GB media. Those are called 'blue dot' Nooks because of the blue dots on the box. Dean Gibson has a thread to repartition back to original layout. Or he even has an option for 2GB data and 4GB media. See here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14101197
leapinlar said:
It depends on which nook color you have. The original Color had emmc partitioned to 1GB data (for installing apps) and 5GB media (for storing music, etc.). About May of 2011 BN started shipping Colors with 5GB Data and 1GB media. Those are called 'blue dot' Nooks because of the blue dots on the box. Dean Gibson has a thread to repartition back to original layout. Or he even has an option for 2GB data and 4GB media. See here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14101197
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but i guess i asked my question wrongly. I meant in cm7. Some people say to expand the fourth and others th fith partition. I dont know which ones to expand so that they can take up the rest of the 16 gig of my sd card. So which one do i expand fourth or fifth partition and how?
colorfulnookie said:
Thanks but i guess i asked my question wrongly. I meant in cm7. Some people say to expand the fourth and others th fith partition. I dont know which ones to expand so that they can take up the rest of the 16 gig of my sd card. So which one do i expand fourth or fifth partition and how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on which boot method you're using... CM7 on eMMC, CM7 on verygreen's SASD, or Racks Dualboot SD...if you can tell us that... we can provide information... as you can see by the options... that's also why so many different recommendations.
Tell us your boot environment... we can tell you what partition its using.
colorfulnookie said:
Thanks but i guess i asked my question wrongly. I meant in cm7. Some people say to expand the fourth and others th fith partition. I dont know which ones to expand so that they can take up the rest of the 16 gig of my sd card. So which one do i expand fourth or fifth partition and how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again it depends on what you have.
And just saying you have CM7 is not enough info. It could be installed on emmc, in which what I told you in the last post is right.
Or you could have it on a verygreen SD installation, which has four partitions. And the fourth partition is 'sdcard'. But the image installer should have expanded that partition to fill up the rest of the card already.
If you are using Rack's dual boot, it is partition seven.
Just give more info and I can be more specific.
Sent from my Nook Color running ParanoidAndroid and Tapatalk
DizzyDen said:
It depends on which boot method you're using... CM7 on eMMC, CM7 on verygreen's SASD, or Racks Dualboot SD...if you can tell us that... we can provide information... as you can see by the options... that's also why so many different recommendations.
Tell us your boot environment... we can tell you what partition its using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leapinlar said:
Again it depends on what you have.
And just saying you have CM7 is not enough info. It could be installed on emmc, in which what I told you in the last post is right.
Or you could have it on a verygreen SD installation, which has four partitions. And the fourth partition is 'sdcard'. But the image installer should have expanded that partition to fill up the rest of the card already.
If you are using Rack's dual boot, it is partition seven.
Just give more info and I can be more specific.
Sent from my Nook Color running ParanoidAndroid and Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so i have cm7 on a sd card. I used verygreen sd installation but it didnt take up all the space, which i found strange since i read on some thread it should have taken all the space as you guys said. I still have majority of my sd card not in use. So what do i do? I didnt want to do the proccess again so is there a fix?
colorfulnookie said:
Ok so i have cm7 on a sd card. I used verygreen sd installation but it didnt take up all the space, which i found strange since i read on some thread it should have taken all the space as you guys said. I still have majority of my sd card not in use. So what do i do? I didnt want to do the proccess again so is there a fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are on windows, get the free Mini-Tool Partition Manager and just expand the last (fourth) partition to fill the rest of the disk space. If on Linux use gparted to do the same thing.
Sent from my Nook Color running ParanoidAndroid and Tapatalk
Taken from CM12 thread as this started to become off-topic. The issue I'm trying to address is how to stuff a huge Lollipop ROM directly into internal storage, without creating a virtual slot, to increase system performance and have overall cleaner solution. Original inspiration: @Mentor.37's custom Safestrap for unused partitions, which has way too small /data for me unfortunately. (explanation)
sd_shadow said:
Septfox said:
This in mind, is there any way to repartition the internal (stock) storage to decrease the size of /cache/ and create a larger /data/ partition, or is it not possible without modifying the bootloader?
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Code for mounting the unused preinstall and webtop partitions to SD storage http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=59253593
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This allows you to mount the partitions either as a new storage or to a specific directory only, in other words it does not merge the storages, just adds a mount point next to (or possibly if modified a bit on the top of) other storage. While this may be useful for taking some inherent load off /storage/sdcard0/ (i.e. mounting /dev/block/webtop to /storage/sdcard0/Downloads) for people not swapping their sdcards, it doesn't help in Septfox's intention of enlarging /data/.
I face the same problem as Septfox: I'd love to use the storage intended for running system for it, not virtually mounted storages created in the storage intended for storing media and support data. However, the outline of the storage is intended for way older and less robust system so even the /system/ is not quite enough (667 MB, which tightly fits CM12 with a small GApps package) and /data/ is also not enough for heavier use (3.22 GB). Therefore I would like to merge it with currently unused partitions: maybe join preinstall to system and webtop to data, making both big enough.
One alternative would be to mount the 1.4 GB webtop as /data/app, which currently makes about 2/5 of occupied space of my /data. Is this possible? At which point of system startup is the script in /system/etc/init.d executed (is it done by Safestrap or the ROM itself?), and at which point might the system first need to access /data/app that contains the APKs of user-installed apps? All the really needed stuff (compiled executables) is in the /data/dalvik-cache, right? Here I'm on a really thin ice, don't know much about Android's architecture, so sorry if this is a major bullsh*t - just throwing my idea in Technically what I'm talking about is such modification of the script:
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
mount -o rw,remount /data # Not too sure about this
# - depending on whether /data is already rw or not.
# For that I would need to know when is the script
# executed. I'm almost sure this is not necessary
# though. In original script this was done to allow
# writing into /storage/.
mkdir /data/app
#mount -o ro,remount / - unnecessary, see above
#mount -t ext3 /dev/block/preinstall /storage/preinstall
# I don't see any use for small preinstall partition.
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/webtop /data/app
chmod 777 /data/app # not sure about this either,
# probably should be 771
Clean version:
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
mount -o rw,remount /data # Unnecessary?
mkdir /data/app
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/webtop /data/app
chmod 777 /data/app # Possibly 771 instead.
Is that possible to run, or will it bootloop, what do you think?
Even better IMO would be to delete preinstall and webtop and shrink the Stock data down to maybe 200 MB so the original Stock system is still present, preventing the phone from bricking and accommodating Safestrap. The remaining space could be divided between Safe system (say 800 MB) and Safe data (over 4 GB). Are we able to do this somehow, maybe by customizing Safestrap a bit more? Or are partitions in /dev/block locked by bootloader? Also are all these and Internal storage located on the same physical chip, or are there two separate memories in the D4? Attached proposal of repartitioned layout Sizes taken from here and here.
Developers and experienced users, I would love to hear your opinion, mainly on whether repartitioning internal storage or at least mounting webtop to /data/app could work on D4. Thanks!
Addition to the original post:
I have a spare D4 with shattered screen and not working SIM slot that I bought for spare parts. Apart from GSM (or telephony altogether? I didn't try, as only option would be emergency call which I don't want to abuse, and we don't have CDMA networks here) it works fine though. I can try meddling with formatting/partitioning - it won't be too big deal if it gets bricked beyond possibility of SBF restore.
Replies so far, taken from the original CM12 thread:
sd_shadow said:
I don't think repartitioning is possible without high risk of hard bricking the device, and yes the locked bootloader does limit what can be done.
This is quite off topic, and you should start a new thread if you are going to continue.
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Good call, started new thread
lucize said:
tried to change the type of preinstall partition and the device would boot into fastboot: (invalid cg hab (cg: ebr, status: 0x0056)
so a recovery is needed, I'll try a resize if I can compile the tools in safestrap. but I think it would not work
later edit: used fdisk to resize in safestrap and it broke again so it can't be done
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Thanks for trying! What do you mean by changing type?
As I added here in the first post, I have a spare shattered but mostly working D4 I wouldn't be too sad to see bricked - I can try out more dangerous stuff if you point me in the right direction. I'd like to help testing different approaches to repartitioning if you have some potentially harmful ideas that you wouldn't try on your own phone.
Curious question aside: where is bootloader (and fastboot) stored? Is it sitting on some other small partition? Can we mount it to be read, or even to write there? What/where is that protection that keeps us from unlocking the bootloader?
Also, concerning mounting the free partitions to other system partitions: do you think it's possible to mount them as a folder in /data (whichever we use)? Does it matter what filesystem the partitions use? What part of boot-up runs the /system/etc/init.d/ scripts? Do you think attached proposals 2 or 3 are feasible? It would still have the stock system untouched for an emergency use and Safestrap storage, but its data would be shared with the safe system, with webtop mounted as /data/app or /data/data (1.4 GB should suffice I hope) which would leave us with nice 3.2 GB for the rest. Of course, preinstall's 600 MB for /system is hardly enough for CM12 with Pico version of PA GApps so the rest of used Google apps would inflate /data a bit - but still this is probably the best option we have now.
Actually, I find the stock /system/ to be adequate. Yea, it's a tight fit, but CM12+PA Micro Gapps slots in with 30-someodd megabytes to spare, and there shouldn't be any real need for additional space on top of that. Though, I suppose there could be trouble if CM starts including larger apps.
Init.d is done by the ROM itself, and has to be enabled at build time; CM12 actually has it shut off for whatever reason (Slimkat did as well, I would imagine CM11 also did). There's an app called "Universal Init.d" in the Store, but by the time it can get around to executing the scripts, it's obviously way too late to be screwing with vital partitions : \
Worth pointing out that Safestrap appears to have proper ADB access, you might be able to do something with partitions thataway. I don't know enough about partitions and mounting in Linux to take a jab at it. Woop, looks like that's already a no-go. Maybe the bootloader does a check or three to make sure the partitions are all in order, and throws a critical error if not.
If absolutely all else fails, there's still symlinking large apps into the newly-accessible partitions that can be done, either manually or with Link2SD/similar apps. It's a bit of a hassle, but an option nonetheless.
Well, stock /system is fine but I want to keep it untouched - mainly because I don't want to install CM12 as an update over stock JB, and also to keep myself from SBFing (at least in the long run) because of trivial issues. When this option is off the plate, the remaining partitions don't seem to offer enough space to run CM11 in a non-virtual slot (as Mentor.37 offers with his modified Safestrap with a "Safe" slot with 600M system and 1.4G for data).
Symlinking is an ugly solution - used it for a while, never liked it, mainly because symlinks broke once SD got unmounted or mounted as Mass Storage, with problems remounting afterwards.
Since we can modify the system freely, I'm sure that if necessary, we could make a neater solution than using an app to create symlinks after boot. Question how early in the boot process can we add some scripts (by flashing some zipped patch over the ROM) goes to more knowledgeable devs though...
first time I just used t option in fdisk to change partition type to whatever without changing size, the second time I resized some of them and every time after 1st reboot the M logo would appear for 1 second and from now on it would go straight into fastboot without M logo, so it seems that something in bootloader is verifying the layout or something and if is not good it would stop.
I don't think that it's possible to brick it for good, use rsd to recover
Regards
Thanks to @lucize for his trying, sadly it seems we can't repartition at all
@Mentor.37, is there a source to your customized SS 3.75 available? I'd like to try and mess around with it to put the Proposal 3 from my second post's attachment to work.
Could mounting and symlinking be done from Safestrap, or does the ROM do it itself? I have ideas of various cross-linking of folders on the partitions to kind of emulate repartitioning - but I'd have to try if it works and it would need to be done either before the system boot or shortly in the process. See attachment - that's a first draft I presume for this that the user keeps stock system only for keeping the phone bootable no matter what happens in other than stock slots, so stock data would be utilized only for root and safestrap, leaving most of its 3.2 GB free.
LuH said:
Thanks to @lucize for his trying, sadly it seems we can't repartition at all
@Mentor.37, is there a source to your customized SS 3.75 available? I'd like to try and mess around with it to put the Proposal 3 from my second post's attachment to work.
Could mounting and symlinking be done from Safestrap, or does the ROM do it itself? I have ideas of various cross-linking of folders on the partitions to kind of emulate repartitioning - but I'd have to try if it works and it would need to be done either before the system boot or shortly in the process. See attachment - that's a first draft I presume for this that the user keeps stock system only for keeping the phone bootable no matter what happens in other than stock slots, so stock data would be utilized only for root and safestrap, leaving most of its 3.2 GB free.
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I believe that it's impossible because symlinking "works" after kernel is loaded and safetrap take place (is loaded) before a kernel is loaded....
If I'm not mistaken, symbolic linking is a filesystem thing, something like a shortcut only more complex (after all, it's completely transparent to anything accessing it). ADB probably has commands to make links, terminal emulators in Android definitely can. I think the problem you face is making sure the mountpoint, path, etc are exactly the same both in SS and Android.
Probably better to just do both the mounting and symlinking under Android, so you can be 100% sure that everything matches. We already know /cache/ is unused most of the time under LP, and can (probably) even be unmounted while booted if needbe; why not experiment with it, rather than going straight for the other more important partitions, until you're sure what you're thinking will work?
Edit: Wikipedia has a big ol' writeup on symlinks under various systems, looks like a fun read.
rblanca said:
I believe that it's impossible because symlinking "works" after kernel is loaded and safetrap take place (is loaded) before a kernel is loaded....
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I guess then this could be implemented in some early booting stage of the system by some custom .zip being patched over, kind of the way Mentor.37's ramdisks are. Unfortunately I don't have nearly enough knowledge to do it.
What I hope could be done more easily is altering SS to maybe use not only shared cache but shared data as well - then webtop could be used for safe system, leaving more then enough space for it, and we still would have fairly usable 3.2 GB data for it. Maybe we could even assign preinstall as stock data? @Mentor.37, I'd really love to hear your opinion on this, or maybe even get your alternated safestrap's source so I could try it myself
Sorry guys, I'm dropping this. I tried CM12 in stock slot and it doesn't help the system as much as I hoped for, so there's no need for this from my side.
I also mistook the process of installing ROM in Stock. I thought I have to upgrade the stock system to the new ROM in order to keep Safestrap in it, but it turns out it's independent and when "wiping" stock /system it leaves the Safestrap there, so I can easily do a clean install of a new ROM in the stock slot
LuH said:
I tried CM12 in stock slot and it doesn't help the system as much as I hoped for, so there's no need for this from my side.
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About that, could you compare the difference regarding performance between CM12 on the safe slot and CM12 on the stock slot?
I currently got it running on safe slot but I'm thinking about trying to install it to stock slot, now that I sold my Lapdock and don't need Weptop mode anymore.
But I only would do it if it increases the performance of the D4.
Shani Ace said:
About that, could you compare the difference regarding performance between CM12 on the safe slot and CM12 on the stock slot?
I currently got it running on safe slot but I'm thinking about trying to install it to stock slot, now that I sold my Lapdock and don't need Weptop mode anymore.
But I only would do it if it increases the performance of the D4.
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I don't really remember unfortunately, been running it from stock slot for a while now. Before it definitely was way more laggy than now, but that's also when CM12 for D4 was in a VERY early phase.
It definitely increases the performance, I'm just not sure how much. I don't see any reason why leave original system in stock slot though, so no reason to run CM from the safe slot. I don't like the idea of mounting the ext fs with system running from it from fat storage, it's bound to generate some unnecessary overhead.
In case of any major screw-up, sbf is your friend and AFAIK can't get messed up itself It's a good idea to have the factory cable available though, just in case it for whatever reason dies on you with low battery.
Ok, still good to know, thanks! What's sbf?
Well when I got my D4 a few months ago, I thought installing on the stock slot would be dangerous (in terms of bricking) and since I had the Lapdock, I wanted to keep the stock ROM.
But since then I've read that many users have CM12 running on stock slot, so now I want to do that, too. It's just so annoying when the whole phone freezes for half a minute or so and I think that's mostly due to the limited memory (although I have 170-300 MB free most of the time).
Do I have to consider anything special or different while installing than on an install on safe slot?
Shani Ace said:
Ok, still good to know, thanks! What's sbf?
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see
Q12: What is a SBF?
Shani Ace said:
It's just so annoying when the whole phone freezes for half a minute or so and I think that's mostly due to the limited memory (although I have 170-300 MB free most of the time).
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Same here, I suspect it's also connected with throttled data transfer requests of multiple apps at once, but the RAM is IMO the biggest factor. In Linux RAM is almost always full and the "free" space is occupied by cache (filesystem cache or whatever else app's cache) ready to be deleted - maybe the phone is stuttering when freeing the "free" space for other use.
Weird is that my brother with almost vanilla L 5.1 on Nexus 4 has system consuming about 100M less RAM than my CM12 - device-specific drivers maybe?
Shani Ace said:
Do I have to consider anything special or different while installing than on an install on safe slot?
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If you mean on stock slot, just remember that you need to have some system installed there even in order to boot into safestrap - delete old, install new and ONLY then reboot, otherwise you're facing sbf Learned the hard way It doesn't brick your phone (meaning you can unbrick it), but it's lengthy and annoying...
@sd_shadow: Thanks, now I know. Feels kinda stupid having asked one of the FAQ's - can't remember when that happened before.
LuH said:
Same here, I suspect it's also connected with throttled data transfer requests of multiple apps at once, but the RAM is IMO the biggest factor. In Linux RAM is almost always full and the "free" space is occupied by cache (filesystem cache or whatever else app's cache) ready to be deleted - maybe the phone is stuttering when freeing the "free" space for other use.
Weird is that my brother with almost vanilla L 5.1 on Nexus 4 has system consuming about 100M less RAM than my CM12 - device-specific drivers maybe?
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Ah that's interesting, didn't know that about Linux before. Well I always imagined that when there's little memory left, the drive somehow gets slowed down because there would'nt be enough space for some temp files or executions. But I don't really have a clue.
On the other hand, different devices showing different and inconclusive results like that is something I already experienced many years ago. ^^
LuH said:
If you mean on stock slot, just remember that you need to have some system installed there even in order to boot into safestrap - delete old, install new and ONLY then reboot, otherwise you're facing sbf Learned the hard way It doesn't brick your phone (meaning you can unbrick it), but it's lengthy and annoying...
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Yeah I know, I had read about it before. But you can't really miss all those hints everywhere, so I think the community takes good care of spreading that time-saving information.
Actually thanks for encouraging me, because last night I flashed CM12.1 and everything onto the stock slot! Today I installed and configured most of the things I needed (including int/ext storage swap) and I have to say, it really runs better! It might not be as smooth as with a more recent smartphone, but it's definitely snappier than CM12 on the safe slot was (now it's gone and will rest in peace^^). It may sometimes take a few seconds, but most of the time it's very fluid, a great, noticeable improvement.
Additionally, now that I don't have to household with the memory anymore, I installed all the apps that I had left out on the safe slot install and even installed a couple of huge games from the Play Store (NFS:MW, NBA Jam, Batman Dark Knight, Injustice) onto my microSD card and it still runs almost without any hick-ups! I haven't tested the games yet, though.
EDIT: It really seems to have something to do with the amount of memory left on /system. After all that installing I was down to ~ 200MB (which would've been normal on the safe slot) and the phone started lagging a little bit more. But after moving some games and apps to the SD I have more than 500MB 600MB - okay after deleting the cache it's 1,26GB - free on /system and the phone runs smoothly again.
Shani Ace said:
EDIT: It really seems to have something to do with the amount of memory left on /system. After all that installing I was down to ~ 200MB (which would've been normal on the safe slot) and the phone started lagging a little bit more. But after moving some games and apps to the SD I have more than 500MB 600MB - okay after deleting the cache it's 1,26GB - free on /system and the phone runs smoothly again.
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I guess you're talking about /data, not /system (different partitions, /system is usually read-only and system is installed there with stuff you flash from safestrap, everything else goes to /data or /sdcard). Yup, when /data is becoming full, you're gonna experience some strange behavior.
/data is the first "Internal storage" in Storage settings, /system is not shown there, /sdcard is the second "Internal storage" and /sdcard-ext, or "SD card", is the actual microSD in default CM12 setup. I guess you have the last two switched though.