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Ok after many hours tonight I have managed to put together a couple .zip files that will install a modified vold.fstab on your Nook Color. (I am a total n00b at this)
The EMMC of the Nook Color has a partition for the ROM and a 5 GB partition that's mostly if not completely unused. Presently, there aren't any 3rd-party managers to move apps to that unused partition, so I modified the vold.fstab and am now able to use that partition for apps, files, etc.
NC.SWAP.VOLD.ZIP swaps the way the SD and EMMC directories are mounted. By swapping the mount points, and renaming EMMC to SDCARD, your apps, etc., will install to the internal storage, vs. installing to your SDCARD. Your physical SDcard is automatically mounted as "EMMC."
This also means that the music player still finds files, you can move files to "EMMC," and you can still eject the SDcard ("EMMC"), put it back in and it still shows up automatically. Now your NC won't freak out if you pull the card out without unmounting it - all of the apps are on the actual EMMC. You'd just find the SDcard under /mnt/emmc instead of /mnt/sdcard.
Because this ZIP file maps the change at an OS level, when you boot to recovery, your NC sees SD as the SDcard, so no issues occur. When you boot into your ROM, the mount points are swapped and you'll have access to the renamed "SDCARD" (5 GB) on your NC.
Use CWR 3.0.1.0 to install the .zip and check out the results with File Manager.
Thanks go out to Clark008, luciferii and Cali^Gal from #nookcolor, Loonacy and Raymondull from #Cyanogenmod, and EpicFail1236 from XDA.
Sorry if this is a bit crude, it's my first script ever. I would be happy to get any advice on how to make this better!
EDIT: I have been looking into renaming the emmc mount to say SD-External or better yet making it mount as /mnt/sdcard/sd-ext. it might be possible, ill be looking into it as soon as I can got laid up for a bit.
"Because this ZIP file maps the change at an OS level, when you boot to recovery, your NC sees SD as the SDcard, so no issues occur. When you boot into your ROM, the mount points are swapped and you'll have access to the renamed "SDCARD" (5 GB) on your NC."
/\/\ That clarifies a lot compared to the brief orig post. Will likely be flashing it this weekend.
BTW, if this expands and you need this 2nd post just have a mod give it to you. Thanks again!
BRILLIANT. Will be definitely testing this later today. Can't wait to run SD Tools on this
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
it works! interesting how it'll work out as to unmounting, flashing roms. but with emmc being useless this is fantastic.
Thank you for the effort and time place in this mod
Yeah. The whole point of this was to utilize the 5GB internal emmc and not waste it. The next step is to mod the CWM to mount emmc as /sdcard so you can flash your zips from where you download them to (usually /mnt/sdcard/download), which in this case, goes to your emmc. But CWM will mount your external sdcard instead. For the time being, we can just put the zips we need to flash to the external sdcard, ie. /mnt/emmc.
I don't know if anyone noticed it yet, but if you usb mount after the swap, the transfer speed is kind of slow (~1.5mbps). I don't know if this is due to the emmc or that the read ahead cache needs to be tweaked.
We're open to make this even better. Feel free to comment and provide feedback.
This sounds like a step in the right direction, however, what I would like to see would be merging the emmc with the internal storage. What I mean is this; right now, when I go into "Storage", I see an "SD card" (8gb), "Internal Storage" (0.92gb), and "/mnt/emmc" (5gb). Why can't we combine the .93 Internal and the 5gb emmc together to make a 5.92gb Internal storage and eliminate the emmc from teh storage area? I'm sure there is a reason that I'm not aware of, but it seems that this would be the same as just about every other device. I am pretty sure the ROM is running from the emmc partition, so that has to have something to do with it, but I don't see a purpose for 3 storage places. I keep getting errors when I try to download apps and I don't even have very many installed. I have had to move most of them to the SD card to make room and some apps don't like to be installed on the SD card.
Another option would be to swap the emmc with the Internal storage. Then we'd be using the 5gb and the .92 gb would be sitting there doing nothing instead. Again, I'm sure there are reasons for this, I'm just asking to learn.
I agree.. ideally having the emmc mount be part of the system would be ideal.
Calla969 said:
This sounds like a step in the right direction, however, what I would like to see would be merging the emmc with the internal storage. What I mean is this; right now, when I go into "Storage", I see an "SD card" (8gb), "Internal Storage" (0.92gb), and "/mnt/emmc" (5gb). Why can't we combine the .93 Internal and the 5gb emmc together to make a 5.92gb Internal storage and eliminate the emmc from teh storage area? I'm sure there is a reason that I'm not aware of, but it seems that this would be the same as just about every other device. I am pretty sure the ROM is running from the emmc partition, so that has to have something to do with it, but I don't see a purpose for 3 storage places. I keep getting errors when I try to download apps and I don't even have very many installed. I have had to move most of them to the SD card to make room and some apps don't like to be installed on the SD card.
Another option would be to swap the emmc with the Internal storage. Then we'd be using the 5gb and the .92 gb would be sitting there doing nothing instead. Again, I'm sure there are reasons for this, I'm just asking to learn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have no idea TBH but thats far beyond my ability. really it would be nice to symlink emmc to the SD card or the other way around. the issue is that you cant symlink with fat partitions :-/
This is neet. I don't know enough to comment, but it looks valuble for some people.
I just use my stock emmc for music storage and let apps sit on SD w/ videos.
WobbleTheHutt said:
i have no idea TBH but thats far beyond my ability. really it would be nice to symlink emmc to the SD card or the other way around. the issue is that you cant symlink with fat partitions :-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, but you can symlink to them. Why not set vold.fstab to mount the partitions onto other names and make symlinks named /sdcard -> /othername? That way, the symlinks can do their jobs or rearranging the namespace to suit our needs.
The ramfs isn't FAT32, is it?
I'm an old cmdline type, tricks like this are used all the time to fool software with stubborn opinions about filenames.
Dennis
Jiggity Janx said:
If this works as effectively as it sounds like it will it's gonna rock! With the multiple wifi/bluetooth file transfer options I can say bye bye to the need for an sd card!
EDIT: I think this thread is eerily quiet because of the popular advice written up HERE. Specifically #5...
IMO, with a great write up on the best ways to work with this, all of the things it will affect (positive and negative), and the proper words of warning then the individuals that take it upon themselves to modify their devices are the only ones that can be held responsible if it doesn't work out as they had hoped. They also have to understand that when they work outside the boundaries of an accepted "standard" that they are somewhat desolate and will need to come back into the fold before they can/will be helped...
Just my .02...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This may be slightly off topic, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what that post is complaining/ talking about, I have had no trouble bouncing between HC, CM7 and stock.
All you have to do is flash to stock and then worst case you force the boot failure and the nook resets its self automatically
The last few posts on that message are myself and another person who have had not trouble with that now the OP hasn't responded so i'm not sure what to make up that post.
Is it real and an actual issue?
Or did the poster overreact to something?
Can some one please explain it to me if I am wrong about something in using a EMMC version of HC?
chisleu said:
This is neet. I don't know enough to comment, but it looks valuble for some people.
I just use my stock emmc for music storage and let apps sit on SD w/ videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems neet to me also. Always interested in using both emmc and sd space.
@ chisleau - I like the concept of putting all my music on emmc. Do you use an option in CM7 to install or move all your apps to your SD card?
thinking out loud (and not actually doing it) -- but we know that /data is /dev/block/mmcblk0p6 and and the "media" or "emmc" is located at /dev/block/mmcblk0p8 -- can't we just repartition and merge the two?
minotauri said:
thinking out loud (and not actually doing it) -- but we know that /data is /dev/block/mmcblk0p6 and and the "media" or "emmc" is located at /dev/block/mmcblk0p8 -- can't we just repartition and merge the two?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We can repartition but don't do it for this Reason -#5 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12494638&postcount=1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12494666&postcount=2
ROMs that follow proper packaging - This emmc swap mod is one of them. So we're fine for those who are still hesitating.
Clark008 said:
ROMs that follow proper packaging - This emmc swap mod is one of them. So we're fine for those who are still hesitating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I was hesitating, but between your post above and the "Thanks" from fattire to the OP, that is all the encouragement I need to take the plunge.
A few questions, tho, if someone can help me to understand this better....
I guess until I saw the OP, I did not realize that all apps in CM7 are installed to the SD card, as when I look at my installed apps in App Mgr, they don't show as being on the SD card. Is this some sort of CM7 voodoo or are my apps really on the internal memory?
Right now, with CM7, I am using the EMMC partition to store my music, under "My Files/Music". Power Amp can see this folder and it will play all my music just fine from within that directory on the internal partition, so if I install this update, what will that do to the 5Gb of internal storage I have now and the music on it?
Also, if I do install this update, what will happen to the apps and their associated data that I already have installed? Is this best done on a fresh build or will everything (apps/data and music) be A-OK after the Swap update is applied?
Just want to know what I am getting into by applying this update, as I have things pretty stable right now. If I could roll with apps on internal and music on SD, I would be more than fine with that, as long as I don't lose any of my apps/data/music in the process. If this is just mere partition re-naming/re-pointing, then I suspect my assets will remain intact?
Thanks to all who collaborated on this project!
why can't the entire internal partitions be imaged?
i use dd all the time to backup my sd card installs in case a test kernel or nightly goes poorly- or to burn a fresh install for multiple people. I just pop in the sd card into my laptop and burn the image back to the sd card.
if this was possible i'd have no issues with running off internal entirely if i could just burn the img. and get everything back as stock, including important device identifiers incase those were erased.
Need undo
This did what it's supposed to do but it seems to be causing a problem with the way I'm booting from sd. Is there a way to undo this?
Bump since I found this useful. +1 for CWM sdcard/emmc swap to enable SDcard-less flashing goodness from ROM Manager.
Hey everyone!
Is there a way to method yet for the S2 to rewrite the partitions? My S2 will be arriving today, replacing my Desire Z, and so the only reason I ask is because I like a simple partition where there is one for the phone and one for the sdcard (especially when it comes to using CWM and such).
Like on a harddrive, rather than having two partitions, like this case where there is the "internal memory" of 1gb or whatever it is, and then the remainder 16gig (not including the sdcard) is read AS an external. Could it be simply rewritten for the internal to be ~17gb? I do remember rewriting partition size on the G1 to get Cyanogenmod 6 to fit on it.
Just curious, please don't flame me if this is not feasible (or has been already done, again I don't have the phone yet and I haven't come across anything in my research, and yes I did search for it, even used "partition" to find anything).
mrmartin86 said:
Hey everyone!
Is there a way to method yet for the S2 to rewrite the partitions? My S2 will be arriving today, replacing my Desire Z, and so the only reason I ask is because I like a simple partition where there is one for the phone and one for the sdcard (especially when it comes to using CWM and such).
Like on a harddrive, rather than having two partitions, like this case where there is the "internal memory" of 1gb or whatever it is, and then the remainder 16gig (not including the sdcard) is read AS an external. Could it be simply rewritten for the internal to be ~17gb? I do remember rewriting partition size on the G1 to get Cyanogenmod 6 to fit on it.
Just curious, please don't flame me if this is not feasible (or has been already done, again I don't have the phone yet and I haven't come across anything in my research, and yes I did search for it, even used "partition" to find anything).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... Why would you want that? Explanation makes no sense.
You get about 500 MB system, 2 GB data, can't remember cache, then 11 GB as sdcard, with external sd optional.
You could modify the pit in theory but that's risky, and what you are trying seems confused or outdated for this phone
pulser_g2 said:
Hmm... Why would you want that? Explanation makes no sense.
You get about 500 MB system, 2 GB data, can't remember cache, then 11 GB as sdcard, with external sd optional.
You could modify the pit in theory but that's risky, and what you are trying seems confused or outdated for this phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I am just thinking from my experience with the Captivate that it poses some "oddness" when dealing with the sdcard and things like CWM, since when you put an sdcard it, it then has 3 partitions (internal, "internal extention," and the sdcard). Is there a reason the extra space is partitioned out instead of having it as part of the internal?
SOLVED - did a factory reset from inside CM9 and checked the box to format the sd card (god knows why this worked but the one in recovery didn't..also, why the hell didn't i think of this sooner? could have saved myself a week of searching)
while i was tinkering around trying to fix "mediaserver" (was killing my battery) i started to format my internal sd card memory (after backing it up)...for whatever reason i choose to do this via windows with the quick format off (wanted to scan for bad sectors and crap) then i forgot it was still running and unplugged my phone :facepalm:
novice mistake, i know.
anyhow, i've got adb up and running again, but i haven't been able to find a guide to fix it, or the info to bring up the partition tables, most sites give me specific commands to deal with the external card, but not ones to figure out how CM9\sgs2 is partitioned
ideally i'd like to just restore the partition, I do have backups if that's not possible though.
Phone is up and running fine minus that partition (which of course many apps rely on to store data, most don't have options to redirect it to my sd card.
any info on how CM9\sgs2 is partitioned or how to use ADB to find out would be greatly appreciated
Boot into your recovery and format your SD from within the recovery. That should fix it.
Lennyz1988 said:
Boot into your recovery and format your SD from within the recovery. That should fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
already tried that, the partition fails to mount, when i put my external sd card in the "sd card" partition mounts, but emmc doesn't (the sd card partition now being my external instead of my internal memory)
anyone even have a idea where i can find info on partitioning the internal memory? i've been searching as much as i can but i mostly only get link2sd pages, nothing on how to actually partition the internal memory
::edit:: i've made some progress, i've managed to install and operate parted via adb, but the version i have doesn't seem to support fat 32, i deleted then remade the partition but the phone still won't recognize it. cwm recovery is telling me "failed to mount /dev/block/mmcblk11 (invalid argument)" other pages seemed to imply that if i can get the partition to fat32 with a block size of 4096 it might work.
a factory reset from inside CM9 with the sd card format box checked did the trick, not sure why it took me a week of googling to figure that out :/ (wtb a facepalm emoticon)
"CM" you mean ?
CM = CyanogenMode?
CyanogenMod Kernel for Galaxy ?
"CyanogenMode" by installin from default ClockWorkMode? section of "Install ZIp from SD" ?
I need to re-partition Internal Memory too.
searched & found this your Topic.
would you please tell me what exactly has been done to fix re-partitioning internal memory?
maybe it can be so Important and Sticky.
Reza_Sadeghi said:
"CM" you mean ?
CM = CyanogenMode?
CyanogenMod Kernel for Galaxy ?
"CyanogenMode" by installin from default ClockWorkMode? section of "Install ZIp from SD" ?
I need to re-partition Internal Memory too.
searched & found this your Topic.
would you please tell me what exactly has been done to fix re-partitioning internal memory?
maybe it can be so Important and Sticky.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I have had the same problem, and if your device is not recognizing/mounting your internal SDcard, Bad news! You`ve lost it...
See this post for more details: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1665123
Next time think on a HTC or (even) Nokia, when you are about to purchase a new gadget (samsung, never ever more...:crying.
SociedadePsicopata said:
Actually, I have had the same problem, and if your device is not recognizing/mounting your internal SDcard, Bad news! You`ve lost it...
See this post for more details: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1665123
Next time think on a HTC or (even) Nokia, when you are about to purchase a new gadget (samsung, never ever more...:crying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's been a while, but it wasn't lost, i just had to repartition it, i described how i did this a few posts up.
i'm quite happy with my samsung sgsII, i'm not familiar with some of the other devices but i haven't run into any issues i can blame samsung for.
CM9 is exactly what i said it was, cyanogenmod 9. it's a whole rom package, not just a kernal
Hi
I've just done a factory reset using Titanium Backup and the Nova Launcher backup system. It was a complete disaster (well, maybe not complete--I needed the cleanup) as neither of the backups functioned correctly and I lost all my apps, etc. After restoring from scratch, I did a bit of research. By default, both Titanium and Nova backups were saved to sdcard0 (as opposed to externalsdcard). I'm a relative newbie to the S3, but I think sdcard0 is the internal phone storage and therefore wiped when I did the factory reset. Am I correct?
If so, I have to wonder why both backups defaulted to this storage location. I've since moved both folders to external sd card and changed the backup paths on both apps. To preclude similar disasters, can I rename the somewhat confusing sdcard0 to something more recognisable (internal or phone storage seems reasonable) or would this cause more mayhem?
If I'm completely out to lunch with all of this, can someone educate me on the mysteries of the S3's storage configuration
Thanks in advance
Warthog
Hmm ...
Warthog01 said:
...
If so, I have to wonder why both backups defaulted to this storage location. I've since moved both folders to external sd card and changed the backup paths on both apps. To preclude similar disasters, can I rename the somewhat confusing sdcard0 to something more recognisable (internal or phone storage seems reasonable) or would this cause more mayhem?
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The default is there since there are phones which have no extSDcard (the very cheap Android models and going up to Nexus and even more expensive models).
Do not rename anything - just remember that extSDcard (or the SECOND card that you get to see) is the 'removable' one.
Also note that even sdcard0 is not wiped by "normal wiping", and you probably issued a specific command in recovery or something in order to reformat that!
xclub_101 said:
The default is there since there are phones which have no extSDcard (the very cheap Android models and going up to Nexus and even more expensive models).
Do not rename anything - just remember that extSDcard (or the SECOND card that you get to see) is the 'removable' one.
Also note that even sdcard0 is not wiped by "normal wiping", and you probably issued a specific command in recovery or something in order to reformat that!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks, XClub!
I certainly don't remember issuing any command that would have reformatted the sdcard0, but you never know. Was I right in redirecting both backups to the extSDcard?
At some time you have flashed an Aosp 4.2.x Rom or the 4.2.1 leak.
As this has facility for users your sd card is formatted to accommodate different user data via an emulated set up.
To get things back to normal on 4.1.2 I suggest backing up your sd card and formatting it in settings/storage.
Hi Slaphead and thanks
I had to chuckle at your reply, because I wouldn't know how to flash a ROM (or a leak) if you took me by the hand to show me
Surely that's not something I could have done inadvertently? Anyway, if you're suggesting I backup and format the SD Card, can you give me a couple pointers so I don't screw it up somehow?
Cheers
Warthog
Warthog01 said:
Hi Slaphead and thanks
I had to chuckle at your reply, because I wouldn't know how to flash a ROM (or a leak) if you took me by the hand to show me
Surely that's not something I could have done inadvertently? Anyway, if you're suggesting I backup and format the SD Card, can you give me a couple pointers so I don't screw it up somehow?
Cheers
Warthog
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry,I read in haste!
Titanium does default to storing on internal sd, so a factory reset would wipe the backup, ditto nova launcher, so in titanium set folder to backup to external sd, no need to worry too much about nova as the titanium backup of it will restore its layout.
Apologies for the confusion, my fault!
Thanks again--I've already set up Titanium to back up to external card, so the next time I contemplate a factory reset, I can do so without fear!! :fingers-crossed:
yeah, and next time ask in the correct section
Glebun said:
yeah, and next time ask in the correct section
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try--hope you have a better day tomorrow (and, oh, dear, I forgot to hit Thanks)
Hello.
My Father has a Galaxy S II , and he is always complaining that his phone is low on space.
The phone is 16GB and has another 16GB MicroSD card.
Most of his on-board integrated 16GB is free, and his MicroSD card is almost completely empty, the problem is that this phone has a very small Android OS 2GB partition, and every time he installs an app it always leaves something on the OS partition (even after manually moving every possible app to SD using the built in Move To SD, and placing all photos and videos on MicroSD). So even with very few Apps installed his phone is always begging for space since essentially he can only make use of 2GB of his 32GB of storage.
So I have considered maybe the best way to fix this his issue, is to install a Custom ROM on his phone, which only contains 1 Single Partition for the integrated 16GB of storage space, and another partition for the 16GB of MicroSD storage.
Thus eliminating the limited 2GB OS partition. (basically make it like every new Android phone since the galaxy S2)
I have never used a custom Android ROM so this is new to me ( i am more familiar with PC's).
So my primary question before I start looking for info and procedures on rooting and custom roms for this phone is as follows:
IS it possible to even install a new android OS on this phone which will have only one primary partition, or is this phone forever destined to only work as it is now with a small 2GB OS partition? In other words is there a hardware limitation which prevents this phone from addressing more than 2GB for its OS partition?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
mr_interested said:
IS it possible to even install a new android OS on this phone which will have only one primary partition, or is this phone forever destined to only work as it is now with a small 2GB OS partition? In other words is there a hardware limitation which prevents this phone from addressing more than 2GB for its OS partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can repartition the phone using a modified PIT file. You will be able to increase the Data partition to avoid the "out of space" when installing or updating apps. The tradeoff is to have a smaller internal SD partition.
I have done it to my S 2.
There is a thread with clear instructions on how to do it. You will have to learn to use Odin, but that will be very useful as long as you have Samsung phones.
Here is the link: [MOD][GUIDE]Partition your internal memory for better App management (Pit Files)
svbarbosa said:
You can repartition the phone using a modified PIT file. You will be able to increase the Data partition to avoid the "out of space" when installing or updating apps. The tradeoff is to have a smaller internal SD partition.
I have done it to my S 2.
There is a thread with clear instructions on how to do it. You will have to learn to use Odin, but that will be very useful as long as you have Samsung phones.
Here is the link: [MOD][GUIDE]Partition your internal memory for better App management (Pit Files)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info.
Would it not be easier to just format the phone and start from scratch by installing a new custom Android OS ?
Will starting from scratch with a new OS allow me to set my partitions (just like on a PC) ?
Thanks again.
mr_interested said:
Thanks for the info.
Would it not be easier to just format the phone and start from scratch by installing a new custom Android OS ?
Will starting from scratch with a new OS allow me to set my partitions (just like on a PC) ?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. You must use the Odin / Pit file to modify partition sizes.
And yes, that assumes you will flash a new rom.
svbarbosa said:
No. You must use the Odin / Pit file to modify partition sizes.
And yes, that assumes you will flash a new rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget to mention that re-partitioning your phone will delete all data so do a backup!!!!!
gsstudios said:
Don't forget to mention that re-partitioning your phone will delete all data so do a backup!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said.
I did not mention it because it is the first step in the instructions.
But it is never too much to repeat. Backup! Backup! Backup!