why do you need a partition for a2sd? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Haha ive only had a rooted android for about 2months and you guys have taught me ALOT, but this is once thing that i do not know yet. sorry for the seriously noob question, but here it goes anyway...
What's the reason that we need a partition for a2sd? i just use titanium backup to force apps to the sd and it doesnt need a partition, so whats the reason the a2sd does?

With a2sd or link2sd the SD partition is used as an extension of internal cache, whereas linking apps basically stores app data in a file on the SD.
sinksterĀ©

eventhough u force move ur apps to sd by titanium backup. some traces of it remains in internal memory. so ur int mem gradually gets filled up if u install more apps. also the apps that you move to sd takes time to open up and runs a lil bit laggy.
on the other hand,if u partition with ext. thia ext acts as additional int mem virtually and hence you can install more apps without sacrifying performamce
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

Related

Fast Question

Hey! I have a fast, dumb, question! What does each partition do? I wanna partition my new SD card through amon_ra 1.5.2 and it says swap size, ext2 and FAT32 size... what's what! and whats the recommended for an 8gb card class 4
swap is not needed necessarily, it is used to store stuff when ram is going low. fat32 is the part where your music, pictures etc are stored (the part that gets mounted on your pc when you want to copy files), and ext2 is the part where apps2sd stores the apps.
ext2 (or 3 or 4) and fat32 are the filesystems that are created on the partitions, that is why they are called this.
kendong2 said:
swap is not needed necessarily, it is used to store stuff when ram is going low. fat32 is the part where your music, pictures etc are stored (the part that gets mounted on your pc when you want to copy files), and ext2 is the part where apps2sd stores the apps.
ext2 (or 3 or 4) and fat32 are the filesystems that are created on the partitions, that is why they are called this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have 1028Ext2, 128swap and the rest is fat32! is that ok?
Shei77 said:
i have 1028Ext2, 128swap and the rest is fat32! is that ok?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure about the order, but basically yes. you don't need swap, and your ext is probably big enough for >3000 apps (read: too big), but as long as you are happy you can leave it that way.
kendong2 said:
not sure about the order, but basically yes. you don't need swap, and your ext is probably big enough for >3000 apps (read: too big), but as long as you are happy you can leave it that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really?Lol!
btw are apps supposed to take any "space"? In Modaco 2.9 i lost some internal space on all the apps i installed? is it supposed to take some memory from 100mbs of my htc hero internal memory?If yes, how to remove it, if not, omg modaco 2.9 was bad?
Also is having like 1000 apps making my phone slower? I dont actually have that many, i have 60 i think, if i remove some will it make it any faster?
Also, if i change my ext2 now to like 500mb will it delete any of my current apps or "break" anything?
apps take space from internal memory, search for "apps2sd not working", it is explained in these threads more than enough. you can move the dalvik-cache to the ext partition, then you won't loose any internal space. doesn't seem necessary, i have about 280 apps installed and still 16mb internal left. having the apps does not slow down the phone, only extends the time for first boot after flashing. apps only make the phone slower when they are running, which i control with autostarts.
if you change the ext size partition your apps will be deleted, as will be the rest of the contents of the sdcard. there ways to do it without deleting anything, but frankly, when you need to ask it would be too complicated. would be more effort than make a backup, copy the contents of your sdcard to pc, repartition, copy contents back and restore the backup. that's the way to go btw.
if you uninstalled some/a lot of apps you can regain a few mb by deleting dalvik-cache from recovery. first boot after that may take a while.
kendong2 said:
apps take space from internal memory, search for "apps2sd not working", it is explained in these threads more than enough. you can move the dalvik-cache to the ext partition, then you won't loose any internal space. doesn't seem necessary, i have about 280 apps installed and still 16mb internal left. having the apps does not slow down the phone, only extends the time for first boot after flashing. apps only make the phone slower when they are running, which i control with autostarts.
if you change the ext size partition your apps will be deleted, as will be the rest of the contents of the sdcard. there ways to do it without deleting anything, but frankly, when you need to ask it would be too complicated. would be more effort than make a backup, copy the contents of your sdcard to pc, repartition, copy contents back and restore the backup. that's the way to go btw.
if you uninstalled some/a lot of apps you can regain a few mb by deleting dalvik-cache from recovery. first boot after that may take a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so apps shouldnt take ANY internal memory? if they do i should move dalvik-cache from amon_ra or apps2sd?
autostarts btw?
how to remove dalvik-cache from uninstalled apps? aint it supposed to be auto-deleted when i uninstall apps?
Shei77 said:
so apps shouldnt take ANY internal memory? if they do i should move dalvik-cache from amon_ra or apps2sd?
autostarts btw?
how to remove dalvik-cache from uninstalled apps? aint it supposed to be auto-deleted when i uninstall apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are supposed to take internal space, because they use some space from dalvik-cache. if you move the dalvik-cache to the ext partition of the sdcard then the space is not taken from the internal memory but from the sdcard, obviously...
check the market, with autostarts you can stop applications from being started automatically.
like i said, clear dalvik-cache in recovery image via the menu item and then wait a few minutes for the phone to reboot...
kendong2 said:
they are supposed to take internal space, because they use some space from dalvik-cache. if you move the dalvik-cache to the ext partition of the sdcard then the space is not taken from the internal memory but from the sdcard, obviously...
check the market, with autostarts you can stop applications from being started automatically.
like i said, clear dalvik-cache in recovery image via the menu item and then wait a few minutes for the phone to reboot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may i ask, how can i move the dalvik-cache to my SD card? i actually want my apps to take NO memory AT ALL on my internal memory..

[Q] Apps required to be in phone memory.

I have rooted my optimus one.
just wanna know which are d apps that are neCessary to remain in the phone memory.
so that i cn move rest to sd.
Widgets should remain in the phone memory. Everything else that doesn't run frequently should go to the SD card
kpbotbot said:
Widgets should remain in the phone memory. Everything else that doesn't run frequently should go to the SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about keyboards,go sms,maps n youtube??
Oh yea. I forgot about those. Keyboards and go sms. I think it's okay to move youtube and maps onto the sd card
kpbotbot said:
Oh yea. I forgot about those. Keyboards and go sms. I think it's okay to move youtube and maps onto the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
K.
unable to move maps n youtube.
stil woried abt lockscreen n launchers.
Are you using the stock ROM? Apps that are in /system/app cannot be moved to the SD. If you installed it via downloading/installing from the market or somewhere else, you can move it.
Everything that feels like it should be launched no matter what or those that need to be started quickly on boot, keep it on the phone memory.
kpbotbot said:
Are you using the stock ROM? Apps that are in /system/app cannot be moved to the SD. If you installed it via downloading/installing from the market or somewhere else, you can move it.
Everything that feels like it should be launched no matter what or those that need to be started quickly on boot, keep it on the phone memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. m on stock.
did move sum apps to sd via app 2 sd enabler.
Cmon guys I thougjt it was safe to move all sh#t to sd
It's safe. It's just that apps that need to be started on boot must be there as soon as it can. Read and write speeds on the SD card is much slower than on the phone memory.
Well he didnt ask for fast boot
It's not about fast booting It's about getting the things you need as fast as you can. For example, I need a widget to load as fast as it can since it has to be there as soon as the phone boots. That was my point
Everything that you don't use everyday move to SDcard (if possible). If you move favourite apps to SD and you acces them all day long you will shorten the SDcard's life.
I have void with a2sd enabled. So all user applications are on sd. Can I use titanium backup to move some apps to internal memory?
lekhwani said:
I have void with a2sd enabled. So all user applications are on sd. Can I use titanium backup to move some apps to internal memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Titanium to move a lot of stuff over to the SD from Internal... Stuff in the /system directory doesn't affect your phone's "Internal Storage Space" as reported in the Settings menu since /data and /system are separate partitions. Apart from /system apps, the only thing that I would want to move to the SD that it couldn't move was the PayPal App from the app-private location. Going into ADB wouldn't allow me to do it either.
Titanium also allowed me to uninstall a bunch of the **** that came installed like game demos. This did not free up additional storage space, with the exception of what it removed from Dalvik-Cache. Which, btw is going to be your biggest issue... Some ROM's allow you to move this to the /cache partition, but this is a relatively small partition (~56MB) on this phone and my Dalvik-Cache currently takes up ~90MB.
Pls reply here guys.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=941156
I use app 2 sd to move everything I dont need frequently on SD, than just long press on those program from app 2 sd and Open them.
It's a bit tricky and I dont know other ways (on the home screen most of SD apps wont appear...) but I never had slow opening and the like
Everything was ok till xtesterday.
today i rebooted ma cell,
and all d apps disappeared of sd.
though sd is accessible via file manager,gallery.
i tried formattingsd,cell reset.
bt all in vain.
cant install from file manager.
cant even install from market.
even unable to unmount ma card.
any solution???
Jason_V said:
I used Titanium to move a lot of stuff over to the SD from Internal... Stuff in the /system directory doesn't affect your phone's "Internal Storage Space" as reported in the Settings menu since /data and /system are separate partitions. Apart from /system apps, the only thing that I would want to move to the SD that it couldn't move was the PayPal App from the app-private location. Going into ADB wouldn't allow me to do it either.
Titanium also allowed me to uninstall a bunch of the **** that came installed like game demos. This did not free up additional storage space, with the exception of what it removed from Dalvik-Cache. Which, btw is going to be your biggest issue... Some ROM's allow you to move this to the /cache partition, but this is a relatively small partition (~56MB) on this phone and my Dalvik-Cache currently takes up ~90MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Titanium again and used it to incorporate the updated GApps into the ROM. I knew that I had about 56MB free on the system partition. Putting Gmail, Maps, Street view, Market and anything else that I could find freed 30MB on the data partition.

Re-partioning

Sorted it out the hard way - repartitioned with FAT and lost all my apps. Installed them quickly enough with Applanet App Market.
Theshawty said:
Hello XDA. A few months ago I partitioned my 2GB SD-card to use with a custom made 2.1 ROM I used to have and I have not changed this partitioning ever since, I've been using it with MiniCM and it works alright.
My question is: Could I or could I not partition it back to FAT so I don't have any ext without problems? Or do I need to reinstall MiniCM if I installed it with an ext partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One thing you need to check is if you have chosen 'internal memory' as the place to download applications that you may have downloaded/installed after installing CM1.In that case,choose the 'move to phone' option so that you don't have any apps stored on your ext partition.As long as you have stored apps either in the phone or external which is the FAT partition,there will be no problem at all in getting rid of the partition.Personally,I have never liked any of these ext partitions because I think they slow down the apps stored on them!
...do press the thanks button if this helps...........
Please clearly state which ROM are you going to flash, and the current partition details, partition(s) and size, filesystem ;-)
what is the ext2/ext3 partitions being used for ? are they only for setup new roms or for use while running the device?
i havent noticed any change with or without ext3 partition beside the low space left on the 2gb memory card...
eladmagen said:
what is the ext2/ext3 partitions being used for ? are they only for setup new roms or for use while running the device?
i havent noticed any change with or without ext3 partition beside the low space left on the 2gb memory card...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ext partitions are required to install apps2sd or link2sd so that you can store downloaded applications there instead of clogging your phone memory.These are not required if your OS is Froyo and higher since there is a native apps2sd which helps you move applications to the main FAT portion off the sd card.
-----------press the thanks button whenever you find any post useful........

[Q] how i set up app2sd on jusada's ICS?

hello, noobs here! i just want to ask how can i set up app2sd on my galaxy ace. im using jusada's ICS right now, and i heard that rom support darktremor A2SD enabled, so my assumption is, i just partitioning my SD card, so the rest will working by itself.
now i have partitioned my SDCARD, but when i restart my phone, it didnt happend and still the same, even my sdcard memory decrease.
so my question is:
how to set it correctly?
thanks! (and sorry for my bad english )
Why don't you use s2e
AOKP 4 LYF
scoffyburito said:
Why don't you use s2e
AOKP 4 LYF
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just make sure that my rom is doing right without app2sd apk
Look into my signature for the link pointing to SuperAce609's tutorial. I implemented that trick of S2E in ICsunday by Jusada and it really worked. I had more than 125 apps installed with more than 110MB free space.
Rushyang said:
Look into my signature for the link pointing to SuperAce609's tutorial. I implemented that trick of S2E in ICsunday by Jusada and it really worked. I had more than 125 apps installed with more than 110MB free space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks but i think i found something on manage application menu. go to Settings > applications > manage applications, then tap the SD Card menu, just choose the application you want to move to memory card.
whats the diferent between this and s2e?
kindroid said:
thanks but i think i found something on manage application menu. go to Settings > applications > manage applications, then tap the SD Card menu, just choose the application you want to move to memory card.
whats the diferent between this and s2e?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The big difference between what you're doing and what I'm doing is..
1) Your trick is totally manual. Means, you will have to move each application one by one to the SDCard & also from what you're moving apps to sdcard, will leave "some" data (esp dalvik cache) of that app in actual device memory. So you won't have the full advantage of moving an app. You will have some saturation point at some time.. like even if all of your apps were moved to SDcard and you have about ~60 apps installed, but each app will leave some data to your device memory. & That's why at some point your device memory will get full.
While in mine (using S2E), I have created a partition which totally works like a built-in memory. Whatever I install, ALL gets automatically installed in that partition. which actually saves a lot more actual device memory.
2) You can not move Widget supporting app to the SDCard. It won't work.
While in mine, Everything in that 1GB partition can work even as a Widgets too. Which again means totally functioning as a device memory.
3) I also observed that, when I connect my SGA with computer through USB Mass Storage (Which actually gives more transfer speeds than adb push commands), all my apps which saved in 1GB partition stay active completely. So it takes a lot less time while scanning SDCard for media after removing from USB mass storage.
Rushyang said:
The big difference between what you're doing and what I'm doing is..
1) Your trick is totally manual. Means, you will have to move each application one by one to the SDCard & also from what you're moving apps to sdcard, will leave "some" data (esp dalvik cache) of that app in actual device memory. So you won't have the full advantage of moving an app. You will have some saturation point at some time.. like even if all of your apps were moved to SDcard and you have about ~60 apps installed, but each app will leave some data to your device memory. & That's why at some point your device memory will get full.
While in mine (using S2E), I have created a partition which totally works like a built-in memory. Whatever I install, ALL gets automatically installed in that partition. which actually saves a lot more actual device memory.
2) You can not move Widget supporting app to the SDCard. It won't work.
While in mine, Everything in that 1GB partition can work even as a Widgets too. Which again means totally functioning as a device memory.
3) I also observed that, when I connect my SGA with computer through USB Mass Storage (Which actually gives more transfer speeds than adb push commands), all my apps which saved in 1GB partition stay active completely. So it takes a lot less time while scanning SDCard for media after removing from USB mass storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice info! now i'm using S2E too, but still did'nt understand because my internal memory phone keep reduced.
also i want to ask, what would happen if i mount the SDCARD? and can i fully backup my apps via titanium backup with this?
why dont try this?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=18561098
using this i got 1gb internal memory, while booting is not as long when using darktremore a2sd or s2e
kindroid said:
hello, noobs here! i just want to ask how can i set up app2sd on my galaxy ace. im using jusada's ICS right now, and i heard that rom support darktremor A2SD enabled, so my assumption is, i just partitioning my SD card, so the rest will working by itself.
now i have partitioned my SDCARD, but when i restart my phone, it didnt happend and still the same, even my sdcard memory decrease.
so my question is:
how to set it correctly?
thanks! (and sorry for my bad english )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you just try making your life easier and check out the thread in my signature?
an0nym0us_ said:
why dont try this?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=18561098
using this i got 1gb internal memory, while booting is not as long when using darktremore a2sd or s2e
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok ill try for it
SuperAce609 said:
Why don't you just try making your life easier and check out the thread in my signature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right now i'm using S2E, but my question is, what would happen if i mount the SDCARD? and can i fully backup my apps via titanium backup with this?
and then i still did'nt understand because my internal memory phone keep reduced.

Question regarding App2SD (kind of)

Well, i tested this for some roms and its the same on all of them:
if i move apps that are app2sd-capable by native to sd (via settings -> apps), they work fine, they are still there after reboot.
but if i move apps (app2sd-capable by native or not) via link2sd (yes, moving via link2sd, NOT LINKING!!) or titanium backup, they are all there and working, but after doing a reboot
they're gone.
anyone else experiencing this? what can i do to resolve that? :silly:
realCyphox said:
Well, i tested this for some roms and its the same on all of them:
if i move apps that are app2sd-capable by native to sd (via settings -> apps), they work fine, they are still there after reboot.
but if i move apps (app2sd-capable by native or not) via link2sd or titanium backup, they are all there and working, but after doing a reboot
they're gone.
anyone else experiencing this? what can i do to resolve that? :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why are you using a2sd? This device has enough memory.
To answer your question: The a2sd scripts are meant for Android 2.3.3- or low-end devices. It's likely it won't work
enough memory? well, not for me
im talking about the "most normal" method of moving apps to sd, via settings -> apps -> move app to sd
this works.
but doing so via link2sd or titanium backup doesnt after performing a rebooot.
and im pretty sure i did so (via link2sd) on some other ics-driven devices i owned so im just wondering why it wont work on the dx?
realCyphox said:
enough memory? well, not for me
im talking about the "most normal" method of moving apps to sd, via settings -> apps -> move app to sd
this works.
but doing so via link2sd or titanium backup doesnt after performing a rebooot.
and im pretty sure i did so (via link2sd) on some other ics-driven devices i owned so im just wondering why it wont work on the dx?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are they really gone, or do they just not work?
realCyphox said:
enough memory? well, not for me
im talking about the "most normal" method of moving apps to sd, via settings -> apps -> move app to sd
this works.
but doing so via link2sd or titanium backup doesnt after performing a rebooot.
and im pretty sure i did so (via link2sd) on some other ics-driven devices i owned so im just wondering why it wont work on the dx?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm not sure what you are doing with your phone but I have 50+ apps on it, 10+ games and some of them really big (like Real Racing 2 and NFS MW), none of them moved on sd card and I have 400mb of free space.
MaartenXDA said:
Are they really gone, or do they just not work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are gone from the app drawer and in settings -> apps they are greyed out and have this standard-android-symbol as icon.
when i check via titanium backup they are also not there, but titanium backup finds orphan data to delete, which are virtually useless remains from
those "former installed apps" if you wanna call them that
@nlooooo
its just about having the option do so. i had that on my previous phones and i would love to have that on the dx.
well, im thinking about using "normal" app2sd for apps that are movable natively and link2sd + sd-ext partition for apps that are not movable natively
i know its weird, but i like to keep my data partition as clean as possible
realCyphox said:
they are gone from the app drawer and in settings -> apps they are greyed out and have this standard-android-symbol as icon.
when i check via titanium backup they are also not there, but titanium backup finds orphan data to delete, which are virtually useless remains from
those "former installed apps" if you wanna call them that
@nlooooo
its just about having the option do so. i had that on my previous phones and i would love to have that on the dx.
well, im thinking about using "normal" app2sd for apps that are movable natively and link2sd + sd-ext partition for apps that are not movable natively
i know its weird, but i like to keep my data partition as clean as possible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to accept the fact that using link2sd and symlinking will slow down your phone.
I doesn't work because of /system write protection, so all sylinks made when phone is booted are deleted when phone is restarted, If you're able to make those symlinks in recovery it will work. You can try with script that disables write protection, but I'm still not sure why would you need any a2sd scrip.
While I had Desire I used a2sd scripts, but when I bought Incredible S I didn't have any need to use them anymore. The same is with DesX.
nlooooo said:
You have to accept the fact that using link2sd and symlinking will slow down your phone.
I doesn't work because of /system write protection, so all sylinks made when phone is booted are deleted when phone is restarted, If you're able to make those symlinks in recovery it will work. You can try with script that disables write protection, but I'm still not sure why would you need any a2sd scrip.
While I had Desire I used a2sd scripts, but when I bought Incredible S I didn't have any need to use them anymore. The same is with DesX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
apps moving to sd-ext works fine when using the write protection patch, tested that before, worked fine till i screwed my rom up because of some other stuff.
my problem is moving apps to sd, not linking them to a second sd-partition. i mean, if i move apps to sd via titanium even the apps that are definitely movable by "oldschool" app2sd are gone. thats the weirdest part i dont get.
so moving apps to sd via link2sd or titanium has to work somewhat different than doing so via apps -> settings or any "standard" app2sd app available in the market, doesnt it?
realCyphox said:
apps moving to sd-ext works fine when using the write protection patch, tested that before, worked fine till i screwed my rom up because of some other stuff.
my problem is moving apps to sd, not linking them to a second sd-partition. i mean, if i move apps to sd via titanium even the apps that are definitely movable by "oldschool" app2sd are gone. thats the weirdest part i dont get.
so moving apps to sd via link2sd or titanium has to work somewhat different than doing so via apps -> settings or any "standard" app2sd app available in the market, doesnt it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never used titanium for that, but link2sd is moving them to sd-ext, creating symlinks, that's why that's not working. Using native app2sd from OS moves only .apk files to .android_secure folder on fat32 partition of sd card.
nlooooo said:
I've never used titanium for that, but link2sd is moving them to sd-ext, creating symlinks, that's why that's not working. Using native app2sd from OS moves only .apk files to .android_secure folder on fat32 partition of sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no no, link2sd can move apps2sd OR/AND (if you have a second partition on your sdcard) can link them to sd-ext. it can do BOTH.
and as i said, LINKING apps works just fine when using the write-protection patch. but moving apps to "normal sd card partition" doesnt.
I have this problem before when using link2sd on my old phone.
Your second partition might be corrupt.
On which ext u created the second partition?
There are two you can choose, ext2 or ext3. If you created the second partition on ext3, when u open up the link2sd app choose ext3 at the first time, then all the apps u partitioned/linked on ext3will be visible again.
Ps. I don't think desire x need link2sd as 1gb is really a lot! Trust me u don't need it.
Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app
again: i'm talking about moving (NOT LINKING) apps. link2sd can do that. and i have no second partition on my sdcard right now.
edited the first post and i hope noone will talk about linking apps anymore

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