[Q] [Webtop] Move /osh/usr/share to /preinstall? - Atrix 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello everyone!
Is it possible to enlarge free space on /osh by moving the biggest directory (/osh/usr/share) to /preinstall directory to symlink/mount it to previous location?
Thanks!

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It should be possible, if you do it right.

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Well, something is not right. I moved /usr/lib to /preinstall and symlinked it. Everything is fine!.. until a reboot
I changed /osh/ubuntu.sh, added remount lines from Gentop
/bin/mount -o remount,rw /
/bin/mount -o remount,rw /preinstall
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but after reboot /preinstall is always "Device is busy".
Can someone help me? This is just a great possibility to get more space for webtop without SD - and it works much faster! If I could free some more space via uninstalling unused apps - I could even install OpenOffice =)

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I am told that android partitions are somewhat special/different than what you see on standard linux hard drives.
Maybe an expert can step forward and point us to some good information on how android does things, until then I think trial & error is the only option.
You could try: /bin/mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mmcblk0p17 /usr/lib
One other thought, it may be possible to create a fstab entry instead of putting a mount command in /osh/ubuntu.sh

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tamuin said:
I am told that android partitions are somewhat special/different than what you see on standard linux hard drives.
Maybe an expert can step forward and point us to some good information on how android does things, until then I think trial & error is the only option.
You could try: /bin/mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mmcblk0p17 /usr/lib
One other thought, it may be possible to create a fstab entry instead of putting a mount command in /osh/ubuntu.sh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good idea. Will write back in minutes!

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Hi. If you really need more space, best way is to use WebtopToSD apk. I have 14GB for osh with a linuxdisk chroot and it works great.
Send from my Atrix 4G

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tamuin said:
I am told that android partitions are somewhat special/different than what you see on standard linux hard drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kinda. Yes, the partition layout and partition handling is unusual and unconventional (at least compared to the PC world), but the partition contents (ie. the filesystem) is perfectly normal, exactly what you'd expect to find.
As far as this idea goes, I'd recommend not using the preinstall directly but instead creating a folder on preinstall dedicated to osh. So probably something like this:
Code:
#-- just the first time
mkdir -p /preinstall/osh-lib
cp -a /osh/usr/lib/* /preinstall/osh-lib
rm -rf /osh/usr/lib/*
#-- every time
mount --bind /preinstall/osh-lib /osh/usr/lib
This is just an idea, though it is completely untested.

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jisse44 said:
Hi. If you really need more space, best way is to use WebtopToSD apk. I have 14GB for osh with a linuxdisk chroot and it works great.
Send from my Atrix 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I know that techique =) My goal is to build small and usable Webtop without any SD cards
ravilov said:
Kinda. Yes, the partition layout and partition handling is unusual and unconventional (at least compared to the PC world), but the partition contents (ie. the filesystem) is perfectly normal, exactly what you'd expect to find.
As far as this idea goes, I'd recommend not using the preinstall directly but instead creating a folder on preinstall dedicated to osh. So probably something like this:
Code:
#-- just the first time
mkdir -p /preinstall/osh-lib
cp -a /osh/usr/lib/* /preinstall/osh-lib
rm -rf /osh/usr/lib/*
#-- every time
mount --bind /preinstall/osh-lib /osh/usr/lib
This is just an idea, though it is completely untested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your ideas.
So, I must make a conclusion:
1. I forgot to disable load_pia.sh in /system via ADB/Terminal
Code:
$ su
# cd /
# mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /system
# mv /system/bin/load_pia.sh /system/bin/load_pia.sh.disabled
This prevents mmcblk0p17 mounting to /preinstall
2. I used webtop2sd's mount and mount.orig - and added /preinstall mounting there just befor last mounting attemps of ubuntu.disk
After all everything works like a charm
Uninstalled most of apps, used gnome-appearance-properties to change metacity and gtk2 themes, saved that theme as my own, uninstalled every other theme... The only cons of this techique - still no enough of free space to install OpenOffice, and I decided:
1. to stop with this experiment - as everithing works as I expected;
2. not to symlink folders to /data for OpenOffice - because I will lose everything after first wipe.
If I could resize /osh or /preinstall partition via shrinking /data

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I like your idea...
NemeZZiZZ said:
If I could resize /osh or /preinstall partition via shrinking /data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing the partition sizes has been other devices, see this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22157605&postcount=25
I asked if anyone had tried it with the Atrix 4G in this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2207918
...but I was strongly cautioned against it, I still might try it someday when I have the time.
Thanks for the info on what you did.

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Hello! I already read that before, and I tried to "parted" mmcblk0 - but no success: as I remember, I can't get partition list because of error, and after googling that error I concluded, that partitions are made with error or overlapped.