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Is it possible to repartition my SD card to use EXT4 instead of FAT32, with the Fascinate? I'm currently running an EB01 kernel and a custom EB01 build. I'm just not sure how to do this part, as I've never done it before. I've seen it done for other devices, but I don't think it has come up here yet. This isn't really a debate on if I should or should not make it EXT4, just on how to do it.
That's what a voodoo kernel does.
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JoeDat said:
That's what a voodoo kernel does.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running the EB01 voodoo kernel, and yes it obviously has support for EXT4 since that is the FS it uses.
My question though is how can I mount my SD card to be recognized when I format it to EXT4 too?
Ah crap. I should have read your post more than once. Mundane detail. Just call me Michael Bolton.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
If you don't have anything on your SDcard you mind deleting (or could just back it up), you could always try repartitioning it, and then seeing if Android is able to mount it.
If it doesn't automatically work, it shouldn't be too hard to modify the system to work (either by switching it from using 'vfat' to 'auto' or 'ext4')... it's just a matter of finding out where to change it.
There's no reason why it wouldn't, I guess... worst case you use command line mount tool to mount it manually every boot
That's what I thought too, that it would work inherently, but I partitioned/formatted the entire thing to EXT3 and it was not able to be recognized. I think either A) there is no built-in module for EXT3 support, or B) I'm just not doing it right.
Could be that I used a Windows tools to do the job to get EXT3, and I'm having trouble finding one to do EXT4, and I can't find any tools/scripts to convert EXT3 to EXT4 for Android.
If you format the sdcard to anything other than FAT32, Windows will not be able to read it when you try to mount it on your PC. I'm not sure if there are any utilities available that allows Windows to directly mount EXT filesystems or not, but I would be very afraid of data loss with a configuration like that.
What is the reason you want to convert it? Is it the file size limit of FAT32, or something else?
Posted from my EB01 SuperClean Fascinate with Voodoo
ivorycruncher said:
If you format the sdcard to anything other than FAT32, Windows will not be able to read it when you try to mount it on your PC. I'm not sure if there are any utilities available that allows Windows to directly mount EXT filesystems or not, but I would be very afraid of data loss with a configuration like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's been an ext2 (possibly 3/4, but all are backwards compatible long as you don't use extents on 4) driver for Windows for a number of years. There's also a number of tools that can allow you to open ext2/3/4 file systems and modify them, without actually having to mount them.
ADB would also still work, so would an app that provides access to the sdcard via webdav/ftp/sftp/etc.
What is the reason you want to convert it? Is it the file size limit of FAT32, or something else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speed should improve by quite a bit, as well as greatly increased reliability (although the windows. Ext2/3/4 also support far larger files than fat32, of course, so if you like your raw-DVD rips or 1080p ultra-high-quality bollywood movies, there would be an obvious benefit by removing that restriction. I don't believe the ext family of file systems support it (but I could be wrong about ext4), but tail packing would greatly improve efficiency if you have a massive number of small files (reiserfs has it, btrfs might also- not sure).
Personally, it doesn't seem like there's enough of a benefit to really do it, especially if you're not using Linux... other than the desire to do it for the sake of doing it... which, considering where we are, that's pretty much enough of a reason to do anything.
Until I can find a good way to automount the FS every boot I wil probably stay with FAT32. I played around with different methods last night quite a bit and it turned into much more of a hassle than I liked. I really regret not having it however, because of the loss of speed.
Just got X2.
It was decent deal and I think I like it so far.
That said, I have couple of questions/issues.
#1. When I put my DX2 into my old holster, it THINKS that I am putting it into car dock and that annoying car app comes on and I have to manually turn off the phone. Is there a setting to disable this?
#2. I noticed that DX2 has 2GB root partition and 6GB partition which it mounts to /mnt/sdcard (HIGHLY annoying IMHO) and mounts external sd card as /mnt/sdcard-ext/
Is there way to re-partition and make it 8GB root partition and mount the external SD card as /mnt/sdcard?
I saw the thread regarding swapping /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/sdcard-ext/ but it does not appear too elegant. I wonder whether some kind of partition editor can be used to re-partition the whole thing around.
Thanks.
hpark21 said:
Just got X2.
It was decent deal and I think I like it so far.
That said, I have couple of questions/issues.
#1. When I put my DX2 into my old holster, it THINKS that I am putting it into car dock and that annoying car app comes on and I have to manually turn off the phone. Is there a setting to disable this?
#2. I noticed that DX2 has 2GB root partition and 6GB partition which it mounts to /mnt/sdcard (HIGHLY annoying IMHO) and mounts external sd card as /mnt/sdcard-ext/
Is there way to re-partition and make it 8GB root partition and mount the external SD card as /mnt/sdcard?
I saw the thread regarding swapping /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/sdcard-ext/ but it does not appear too elegant. I wonder whether some kind of partition editor can be used to re-partition the whole thing around.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u are rooted and flash eclipse u will have the sdcard swap included in the rom. Nothing else needed to do but flash eclipse.
And also...eclipse is just amazing anyway
Sorry not much else to suggest.
(Make sure u are on 2.3.4 b4 flashing eclipse 1.0or later)
Welcome to the x2...good to ha e u here...hopefully u don't become frustrated like some here have become with this phone. It can be a little finicky but it IS a very fine phone imho(except for the music stutter issues )
ashclepdia said:
If u are rooted and flash eclipse u will have the sdcard swap included in the rom. Nothing else needed to do but flash eclipse.
And also...eclipse is just amazing anyway
Sorry not much else to suggest.
(Make sure u are on 2.3.4 b4 flashing eclipse 1.0or later)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that some ROMs will include the sdcard SWAP function.
However, I was asking whether we can make one gigantic 8GB partition for the system and mount the SD card under /mnt/sdcard just like DX.
Just wondering.
Thanks.
hpark21 said:
I understand that some ROMs will include the sdcard SWAP function.
However, I was asking whether we can make one gigantic 8GB partition for the system and mount the SD card under /mnt/sdcard just like DX.
Just wondering.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, can't do that. The only thing you can do is flash the SDCard filp-flop mod. This puts the SDCard as /mnt/sdcard and the 6GB (or what ever) internal storage as /mnt/sdcard-ext.
Hopes this helps.
Oh, referencing the holster thing. Two ways to fix that... First is kinda destructive. Find the little magnet in the holster and pry it out. (I don't have a holster so I don't know how easy that is to do.)
Second is easier. Again, I don't know if this works, but... Nothize, a developer in the Android Market created NoDock (NEED ROOT). It's $3.08, but he does have a trial to see if it will work with the DX2.
Ciao!
Moon Shadow - NM said:
Nope, can't do that. The only thing you can do is flash the SDCard filp-flop mod. This puts the SDCard as /mnt/sdcard and the 6GB (or what ever) internal storage as /mnt/sdcard-ext.
Hopes this helps.
Oh, referencing the holster thing. Two ways to fix that... First is kinda destructive. Find the little magnet in the holster and pry it out. (I don't have a holster so I don't know how easy that is to do.)
Second is easier. Again, I don't know if this works, but... Nothize, a developer in the Android Market created NoDock (NEED ROOT). It's $3.08, but he does have a trial to see if it will work with the DX2.
Ciao!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this app free from the market to disable car home untill i just went and delete the car home in the system apps. https://market.android.com/details?...SwyLDEsIm1pZ3VlbGl0dG8uZGlzYWJsZWNhcmhvbWUiXQ..
Congrats to all who figured out the rooting process on NT. The NT has a measly 1gb media partition and over generous 11gb data partition. Can more experienced developers look into gparted-live-0.10.0-3.iso and e2fsprogs-1.41.14.tar.gz to use as tools to repartition the NT? I do not have a NT yet. I have a rooted emmc CM7.1 NC oc'd to 1.225gHz. I appreciate and respect all the effort that goes into this project. I used the develop financial apps for a big US bank.
hwong96 said:
Congrats to all who figured out the rooting process on NT. The NT has a measly 1gb media partition and over generous 11gb data partition. Can more experienced developers look into gparted-live-0.10.0-3.iso and e2fsprogs-1.41.14.tar.gz to use as tools to repartition the NT? I do not have a NT yet. I have a rooted emmc CM7.1 NC oc'd to 1.225gHz. I appreciate and respect all the effort that goes into this project. I used the develop financial apps for a big US bank.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like it won't be necessary...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1355969
Necessary no, but definitely desired.
Sent from XDA Premium app CM7.1
Not even desired if storage is really not partitioned, as it now appears.
unsivil_audio said:
Necessary no, but definitely desired.
Sent from XDA Premium app CM7.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At best, repartitioning will give you an additional 1GB of space, and probably break the ability to ever do a factory restore or load additional updates when they are released by B&N.
I think we need to wait for an unlocked bootloader or at least an accessible CWM with bootable workaround (like on the Droids) before we start messing with the filesystem.
Current configuration allows 11gb for purchased apps, movies, books, music from Amazon app store, BN app store or Google market. Only 1gb is allowed for end user loaded music, books, movies etc. If you have over one thousand song music collection (5gb) you want loaded to NT you will need to use a microSD card. You cannot load an HD movie in the 1gb media partition. The old NC partition scheme had 5gb media and 1gb data. The newer NC partition scheme (blue dot) has 1gb media and 5gb data. Most users will not utilize the 11gb for purchased apps.
Thank you hwong for my case in point.
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hwong96 said:
Current configuration allows 11gb for purchased apps, movies, books, music from Amazon app store, BN app store or Google market. Only 1gb is allowed for end user loaded music, books, movies etc. If you have over one thousand song music collection (5gb) you want loaded to NT you will need to use a microSD card. You cannot load an HD movie in the 1gb media partition. The old NC partition scheme had 5gb media and 1gb data. The newer NC partition scheme (blue dot) has 1gb media and 5gb data. Most users will not utilize the 11gb for purchased apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can add custom search paths to some media players to scan /data/media (or whatever you want to call it). You might even be able to setup a symlink. You can also open the files (large movies, etc) directly from a file manager like Root Explorer.
I do see your point, though, how the layout is different from the NC. I'm using a 32gb memory card so I guess this isn't an issue for me.
The data partition is ext4 formatted whereas the media partition is vfat formatted. When the NT is connected to a computer via USB, the vfat system is what the user sees for loading his own content. I do not think the ext4 partition shows up as a drive on the computer.
thread moved..
Thread moved to general section ..
So, ext4 cant be used ? Can't have books and videos, etc stored in it ?
hwong96 said:
The data partition is ext4 formatted whereas the media partition is vfat formatted. When the NT is connected to a computer via USB, the vfat system is what the user sees for loading his own content. I do not think the ext4 partition shows up as a drive on the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about in a linux distribution like ubuntu? I know that windows doesn't read ext4 (unless 3rd party drivers are installed) nor the first partition (if the nook tablet is really partitioned, that is).
You can store files on the EXT4 partition and access them through a file manager, but it won't appear as a drive on your computer when you connect it. You would have to copy files to an SD card, then from the SD card (plugged into the Nook) to the /data partition.
I'm working on a way to create a "virtual" FAT filesystem within /data that would be mounted to /media instead. This would allow you to use around 10GB for media (while leaving 1GB for /data). The best part is that it doesn't require any repartitioning or reformatting and can be easily undone.
If you can't wait for that virtual mount to work (which sounds super cool, by the way; would a different approach be to look at the smb.conf in the Samba server for Android and share /data via Samba over the network? I've read the 'stock' samba server can't share linux filesystems, but I can't help but wonder if that can't be overridden in .conf) you can do some fugly hacking like I did on the NST:
On the NC and NST, /data is an android-only vanilla filesystem
/mnt/media is the filesystem that is swapped out of Android for copying in from Windows.
On a rooted device where /data is not full, you can use fdisk (or busybox fdisk in case you have not symlinked busybox to the commands it supports) to shrink /data. I would do this over a wireless connection, so that you don't get involved in both partition editing and unmount/remount at power on.
If the /data partition is the LAST partition listed by /mount, you can delete it and resize it hot very easily.
delete it.
hit n
create the 'new' partition as a smaller size.
w to write your changes.
You get an error about the kernel still using the old partitioning. You don't care. Reboot, and your /data partition has shrunk. Now might be a good time to run fsck on that new, smaller paritition. You'll get a warning about running fsck on a mounted disk. On a device with a resized partition and no actual filesystem damage, this has not been an issue for me. YMMV.
Then you would need to delete and recreate /mnt/media to the desired size, toggle the partition label to make it a fat filesystem, reboot, confirm that those boundaries worked also, and then run mkfs.vfat (if I'm remembering correctly) on your new partition.
The tricky bit is getting the partition order correct in a complicated filesystem like this one.
On the NST, you don't actually have to get everything just right.
I found that out by happy accident - I wanted to resize /data and /media there, and they are partition 6 and 8 respectively.
The first time I did it, I was confused about which set of notes described what. When the device failed to start 8 times, it looked at the world and realized a reimage was needed, and formatted the available ext fileystems as /data and /cache, and the fat filesystem as /media.
I did not realize this until quite recently, when I needed to reimage my NST to apply update 1.1, and lo and behold: the partition table after reimaging from stock was not in the order I'd ultimately imposed on it the first time.
I do not know how robust the recovery on the NT is.
Seems to me this is a great time to find out - but I would only muck around with the /data and /media and not touch anything below those, and I don't have one of the NTs so my money's not at risk.
mmcblk0p10 is media vfat partition
Mmcblk0p11 is data ext4 partition
Here is how you repartition /data and /media partitions using Gparted and e2fsprogs as done by a Kindle Fire owner. Methodology is same for Nook Tablet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1388996
hwong96 said:
Here is how you repartition /data and /media partitions using Gparted and e2fsprogs as done by a Kindle Fire owner. Methodology is same for Nook Tablet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1388996
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partitioning seems different as that Extremely Well done set of instructions for a fire only seems to use GParted which I don't believe understands the partitions on th NT???
I could very easily be wrong and if you tried and were successful doing this on an NT then I apologize and want to buy you a case of beer for your efforts to help us all on the NT.... just I'm skeptical as NT doesn't use traditional FS layout or format as far as I believe...
If this worked for you PM me with some proof and your paypal and I'll pay up with thanxs added... else I just felt obliged to question and put my money where my mouth is to save others from at a min. soft bricking their NT...
I still haven't picked up an NT yet so I did not try this yet.
For discussion only.
I would think the repartitioning process is simpler than the Kindle Fire since the /media(vfat) and /data(ext4) partitions are at the end of the SD. Gparted does not create ext4 partitions. Gparted can create ext2 partitions and e2fsprogs changes ext2 to ext4 if I follow the logic correctly. My first step would be to make a backup of the /data partition. Then I would delete /data partition. Then I would increase the /media partition using GParted. Then I would create the /data partition as ext2 using GParted. Then using commands in e2fsprogs to convert format to ext4. Then restore the /data backup from the first step.
Here is the NT partitions from NookDevs
http://www.nookdevs.com/Dump_NookTablet_Partitions
hwong96 said:
Gparted does not create ext4 partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet! An update to it today actually has gparted displaying the partition correctly (it wasn't before? I thought it had ok support for ext4 partitions before, or since 2009ish), so pretty sure they're working on it. I'd be inclined to wait for official support over making ext2 partitions tbh
hwong96 said:
Here is how you repartition /data and /media partitions using Gparted and e2fsprogs as done by a Kindle Fire owner. Methodology is same for Nook Tablet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1388996
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has anyone tried it? I wish to try, but don't understand how to make those binaries work, coz KF used CWM, which we don't have yet! Can anyone direct me?
Hey just wondering, for tablets, anyone still using the old way of ext3/4 and swap then linking the OS to tell it to save the apps, data and dev-cache to SD? Just wondering.
Also gonna try to modify an old way that I used to get debian running on my G1.. to see if I can apply that method for tablets too. =)
/data and /cache already use the innerSD for storage.
Over the summer i'm gonna see if I can make more partitions and move /system and /sdcard over to get something more HC like.
If it's possible I'm gonna make a guide, unfortunately even if it is I doubt it can be automated, you would need to manually modify your install depending on what rom/kernel/setup you do.
So basically on a tablet, no need to even worry about having apps, data, cache on a class 10 sd card? I am still talking about external sd, not the built in sd cards.
I know you can manually link it to it, then reboot. Htc G1 has trained me well lol.
It appears that the only methods that have been used to expand webtop focus on mounting an alternative webtop on an external SD card and using the alternative webtop instead of (or in addition to) the standard webtop (webtopMod, webtop2SD, simpletop, etc. all do this in one form or another).
Has anyone played around with resizing the the sdcard partition (mmcblk0p18) so that it is smaller and then resizing the webtop partition (mmcblk0p13) to a more appropriate size (~4G)?
I see that something similar has been done on the Nook (that is, people have changed the internal memory partition sizes without tragic consequences):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22157605&postcount=25
As for know (I don't know much) the trouble with the partitions it's that everythings works with that layout, recoverys must be rewritten to accept that partition layout, or something.
Besides, why you want WebTop, when you can have Android ICS/JB? .
Contrary to popular belief (and driven by how it works on computers), the partition table is NOT a part of the internal storage. It is most likely defined within the bootloader which, while can be hacked to allow flashing unsigned content (so called BL unlock), is both entirely closed off and extremely sensitive. Hardbricks can happen almost effortlessly if you try to tamper with it. That's why nobody has managed (yet?) to do any kind of alteration of the partition layout on the Atrix.
I would also like to point out when it comes to such low-level stuff trying to compare two completely different devices is often time dangerous and almost always misleading, so I'd avoid that if I were you. The fact this or that is possible on some other device in some certain way will have almost nothing to do with the Atrix (unless the device is really similar enough, like say the Photon).
Ravilov,
I thought that the bootloader would just need to point to the bootable partition. I thought all of the disks/devices would have their own GPT or MBR record that the system would use when it mounts those devices. It looks like just about most everything is mounted from init.rc (even mmcblk0p13, aka OSH).
I am not saying that this idea is without risk, but I guess I am surprised that someone hasn't been brave (foolish?) enough to try it and report back.
tamuin said:
Ravilov,
I thought that the bootloader would just need to point to the bootable partition. I thought all of the disks/devices would have their own GPT or MBR record that the system would use when it mounts those devices. It looks like just about most everything is mounted from init.rc (even mmcblk0p13, aka OSH).
I am not saying that this idea is without risk, but I guess I am surprised that someone hasn't been brave (foolish?) enough to try it and report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be true if we were talking about NORMAL computer harddrives. But we're not. There is no such thing as MBR or GPT or even an "active" partition - this is a much different world.
BTW the bootloader is about 10 MB in size, it contains MUCH MUCH more than just some code to boot a system. For example, the whole fastboot protocol is implemented there, and I believe the offline charging (when the phone is off) complete with its graphics is also in there.
By the time the system reaches ramdisk (ie. init.rc), the partition table has already been set up and the devices nodes created.
Beware however, I have no 100% solid evidence to this, this is just an educated guess (to me this would make the most sense).
> That would be true if we were talking about NORMAL computer harddrives. But we're not.
That is my concern too.
One thing that might work is to repartition mmcblk0p18 into two partitions, the first being a smaller FAT partition and the second being an ext3 partition (mmcblk0p19). We would not need to move/resize anything else (and it looks like CWM does not normally do anything with mmcblk0p18). A full featured webtop could then be put in mmcblk0p19 and it could be mounted as OSH in init.rc.
Of course this doesn't make any better use of the internal storage space, the only thing it does is that it would put the modified webtop in the internal storage which appears to have faster write speed than class 10 micro SD cards.
The benefits are probably not worth the risk and effort.
tamuin said:
One thing that might work is to repartition mmcblk0p18 into two partitions, the first being a smaller FAT partition and the second being an ext3 partition (mmcblk0p19). We would not need to move/resize anything else (and it looks like CWM does not normally do anything with mmcblk0p18). A full featured webtop could then be put in mmcblk0p19 and it could be mounted as OSH in init.rc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't do that. Despite it not having a "standard" partition table, some rules still apply - for example, you cannot partition a partition. Even if you could, what would the new partitions be called? mmcblk0p18a and mmcblk0p18b? Not going to work. The whole entire system is hardwired to use mmcblk0p18 and only that. Plus, you cannot have a root partition as you suggest (mmcblk0p19) that's contained within another partition, it just doesn't make any sense.
Trust me, the webtop2sd and similar ideas didn't come out of nowhere. If there was a decently safe way to change the internal repartitioning with the knowledge we have, it would have been done by now. The only way to do this that I know of is to either change the bootloader or the kernel. The bootloader is obviously out of the question, and I suppose nobody's ever felt the need to mess with the kernel just for this seemingly insignificant thing, when there's a perfectly good workaround (webtop2sd).