I recently moved from the HTC EVO 4G to a Samsung Galaxy S4. I had CM 7 (Android 2.3.3) installed on the EVO and I now have CM 10.1 (Android 4.2.2) installed on the S4. I also spent a few days with stock on the S4.
The EVO was straightforward and my physical SD card was simply mounted at /sdcard.
On the S4, there are several links to the virtual/internal “sdcard” contents, but I can’t tell which are symlinks and which is the actual directory or mountpoint. (I see /sdcard, /mnt/sdcard, /storage/sdcard0, /storage/emulated/legacy, and /storage/emulated/0)
I also see /external_sd, /extSdCard, /storage/sdcard1, /mnt/extSdCard that all link to the physical SD card.
So I have several questions below. Ultimately, the last question is the one I want to accomplish unless there's a reason not to do so. The others are largely just academic curiosity:
Which of these are the actual locations of the storage and which are symlinks?
Is this an element of Android introduced sometime between 2.3 and 4.2 and would I expect to see the same on any device with 4.2? Or is this something that Samsung has done?
If this is not standard to 4.2.2, how broadly is this found? All Samsung..., all Galaxies..., just the S4...?
Because it's internal to the device, I reasoned that the contents of /sdcard would be backed up with a Nandroid backup and obliterated when I flashed a new ROM. That doesn’t appear to be the case. Flashing CM10 left /sdcard intact with all its symlinks. Does that mean that the content of the internal /sdcard area is actually a separate partition?
Is there a way to allocate all of the internal storage back to the system as I'm accustomed to with CM7? For my purposes, it’s needlessly and excessively complex to have two separate SD card areas -- one of which is just pretending.
Thanks a bunch for any help you can provide! I really appreciate the feedback!
That is the standard 4.2.2 partition structure.Emulations and all.
Related
I'm seeing almost every app (except for CWM recovery) thinks the
/mnt/sdcard directory is the external card (which is true in most
android devices). So they are looking in and placing files in the wrong
place. Smarter apps allow me to set a virtual root for it to start with,
but Kindle and Nook insist on looking in /mnt/sdcard/<appname>
for the stored books.
Does anyone know a workaround to repoint /mn/sdcard/<appname>
to /mnt/sdcard/ext_sd/<appname>.
Personally, I think the idea to change the meaning of
the /mnt/sdcard, (from the uSD card to part of the on
board flash memory), was not thought out well.
Yeah its a head scratcher. I assume that HTC decided after putting out a $600 tablet they could save money by not including a $7 SD card in the ext. slot and just defaulted everything to the internal SD. I'm sure someone could write a script to change the mount points on rooted ROMs, but not sure what might fail if you change cards.
hmm as a temp workaround I guess I can run a script to copy the
/sdcard/ext_sd/nook and /sdcard/ext_sd/kindle directories
to the corresponding places on the internal 'sdcard'?
Does android have an rc.local like file to run after the system mounts the two devices, and one to run at shutdown, to do the copies?
being vfat, I can't softlink the directories to point to the real sdcard
is there a way to overlay mount the 2 directories from the real sdcard
to the internal flash sdcard?
Hi there,
I've dabbled in using custom ROMs on a few android devices and I'd like to try to clear up a few hazy concepts. I'm mostly interested in tinkering with my Nook Tablet lately, which is why I'm posting here. At the moment I've got CyanogenMod-7-20120703-TEAM-B-acclaim installed, with what I think is the original partitioning of 1GB for /media and 12GB for /data (which leads to one of my questions below). My intent is to repartition and upgrade the ROM when CM10 beta is released, but I wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about what certain steps are doing in the background:
Q1. When you go in to Settings, Storage, Erase SD card, my understanding is that this only erases certain parts of internal storage. Does it just delete all files and subdirectories of certain partitions? Which ones? Does this vary depending on the OS version?
Q2. Do some custom ROMs do repartitioning automatically, or is this always a separate step?
Q3. Do most custom ROMs simply leave the partitions at the sizes they were?
Q4. I've seen repartitioning instructions referencing the resizing of /media and /userdata. I have /media, but not /userdata. Is this abnormal, or is it due to the specific ROM I have? As mentioned above I do have /data.
Thanks in advance for your time!
~In Your Kitchen (drinkin' your wine)
I am currently running CM10a2.999999999 by DKZ on my Droid X2 and Link2SD (auto link enabled). I have been attempting to run several applications (JetSetRadio and Sword and Sworcery) but both games hang on launch. I have placed the folders that contain the stored .obb files I had prior to flashing to CM10 in /storage/sdcard1/android/obb/. I was wondering if this is an issue with CM10, the unofficial Droid X2 port, the wrong directory or something that I have to do in addition such as linking directories. I appreciate any support given.
Its possible that because the sdcards have been flip flopped you may need to place the obb files in /storage/sdcard0 and the proper underlying directories to get them to function properly. So even though sdcard1 looked like the internal memory its being treated as the external by the rom, and those apps may be using the way the rom was mapped for where to find certain files meaning sdcard0 while looking like the external is actually the internal for the purposes of the way the rom treats them respectively.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Lrs121 said:
Its possible that because the sdcards have been flip flopped you may need to place the obb files in /storage/sdcard0 and the proper underlying directories to get them to function properly. So even though sdcard1 looked like the internal memory its being treated as the external by the rom, and those apps may be using the way the rom was mapped for where to find certain files meaning sdcard0 while looking like the external is actually the internal for the purposes of the way the rom treats them respectively.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I attempted what you suggested but to no avail. Thank you for the support none the less!
After doing some research I have come to find a few explanations to my problem, but not how to properly fix it
DNA, so no SD CARD, I am only refering to the internal storage of the device.
Last night I flashed Slim Bean, which I love! Fantastic ROM so far.
The problem I am having is how Slim Bean and JB 4.2.2 is handling my internal storage.
I have about 8GB of data on my device. Naturally all of this data is stored under /data/media
however, Slim Bean is mounting some other location as /storage/emulated/0. So the ROM does not see my data.
I can browse to it using file browsers.
*Note* When I boot into CWM recovery, it mounts the correct location as my 'sdcard', so I would rather not move the data from this folder in case I need to reboot to recovery.
What I need to know is *How* In JB 4.2.2 do I change the mount point to properly mount my /data/media as the internal storage, and not move or damage the data in the process?
-Hex
Data/media and stkrage/emulated/0 are the same place
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
Unfortunately it is not working on this device. It is showing me 2 different directories.
I have a feeling a symlink somewhere is incorrect, being its simply mounting the wrong folder.
But I lack the knowledge to go into android and change how it mounts folders at boot time.
I guess I will just try a different ROM, which is sad because out of all that I tried, I REALLY liked this one! I kept going back to stock rooted because all of the other roms were just ok.
I really wish I could ask these questions on the actual forum post where I downloaded the ROM image, but i do not have enough posts to be allowed posting rights.
You don't, 4.2.2 is setup to run that way for a very specific reason, the multi user option or feature or whatever. You CAN change its mounts but it probably won't show up at all. Easier would be to symlink /data/media and /0, that would probably work alright. Well, maybe not, /0 is per user so if another user is on the link would break and do who knows what to the system.
Anyways what your asking about is done in the ramdisk that's in boot.img and takes like 2 minutes to do if you choose.
My advice is to decide on 4.1 or 4.2 and if 4.2 then move your stuff to /0 and move on with android's changes, they won't be changing the mounts back anytime soon.
Tapatalked from my HTC DNA - Carbon
agreed adb pull /data then adb push /data /data/media/0
Hello fellow Asus Padfone S users, my name is Andy.
I have a question regarding Internal Storage. Using Asus File Manager, I open the Storage Analyzer at bottom.
There I noticed something fishy,there are 9 Gb of memory in Others Tab. When I click the detail, it is said that I'm using only 3 Gb of space. So,where is the other 6 Gb...?
OK,so then I check in Asus File Manager Internal Storage. Then I click the root (my phone isn't rooted) directory withou hiding the system files. There, I see 2 folder, sdcard and storage, which has the same amount as my internal storage.
The sdcard folder contains my internal storage data. But in the storage folder, it contains emulated and sdcard0 folder which the sdcard0 folder has the same data as the sdcard folder in root.
Then I open the emulated folder. In there, I found 2 folders, 0 and legacy folder. And it has the same amount of data as my sdcard folder in root.
So what is this folders means...? They duplicate my internal storage data and making my phone internal storage full. Can I delete the other folders...? Will it corrupt my phone...?
Any opinion on this is much appreciated.
Thank you before.
winged_potato said:
Hello fellow Asus Padfone S users, my name is Andy.
I have a question regarding Internal Storage. Using Asus File Manager, I open the Storage Analyzer at bottom.
There I noticed something fishy,there are 9 Gb of memory in Others Tab. When I click the detail, it is said that I'm using only 3 Gb of space. So,where is the other 6 Gb...?
OK,so then I check in Asus File Manager Internal Storage. Then I click the root (my phone isn't rooted) directory withou hiding the system files. There, I see 2 folder, sdcard and storage, which has the same amount as my internal storage.
The sdcard folder contains my internal storage data. But in the storage folder, it contains emulated and sdcard0 folder which the sdcard0 folder has the same data as the sdcard folder in root.
Then I open the emulated folder. In there, I found 2 folders, 0 and legacy folder. And it has the same amount of data as my sdcard folder in root.
So what is this folders means...? They duplicate my internal storage data and making my phone internal storage full. Can I delete the other folders...? Will it corrupt my phone...?
Any opinion on this is much appreciated.
Thank you before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Asus roms structure these folders differently than other phones. It differs from other devices.
They are basically the same, basically serves as symlinks to internal storage. (It does the same with my phone)
Your actual SD card should be under removeable/MicroSD if its inserted. No other paths unlike internal storage.
With the exception of the padfone s plus...
They do that so apps can save their data directly into internal storage, and the reason why there are many paths to the same is to maximize app saving compatibility.
Regarding to your issue with you running out of memory around 6gbs is taken out right away because the system uses it. You can use 10.77GB out of the 16GB available. After you first set up your device (Im sure its different with custom roms) Different reasons for that.
Its different with different devices and maybe different roms.
Anything other than that just for say around the system takes more, means there is something is wrong and a factory reset usually fixes that. Pretty confusing stuff I know but other manufacturers do the same thing, samsung got backlash when GS4 got released after users complained that the OS used up almost half of their internal storage.
Justatechie said:
Asus roms structure these folders differently than other phones. It differs from other devices.
They are basically the same, basically serves as symlinks to internal storage. (It does the same with my phone)
Your actual SD card should be under removeable/MicroSD if its inserted. No other paths unlike internal storage.
With the exception of the padfone s plus...
They do that so apps can save their data directly into internal storage, and the reason why there are many paths to the same is to maximize app saving compatibility.
Regarding to your issue with you running out of memory around 6gbs is taken out right away because the system uses it. You can use 10.77GB out of the 16GB available. After you first set up your device (Im sure its different with custom roms) Different reasons for that.
Its different with different devices and maybe different roms.
Anything other than that just for say around the system takes more, means there is something is wrong and a factory reset usually fixes that. Pretty confusing stuff I know but other manufacturers do the same thing, samsung got backlash when GS4 got released after users complained that the OS used up almost half of their internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for your respon.
Yes,I do know that my SD Card is under Removable.
And yes,I know that 6Gb are taken out for the system. I can looked it in Setting/Storage section.
But what I meant is that the reduction is from the 10 Gb that I have.
What if i delete those copied folders...? Is that OK...?
I'll try to factory reset it and see if the issue occurs. It may take somewhile cause it's frustrating if you Factory Reset your daily devices.
Thank you for your respons...