Possible Partition for treble - ZTE Axon 7 Guides, News, & Discussion

I noticed that our device has a very large Bluetooth firmware partition (1GB) and the actual firmware only uses 1mb of it. Would it be possible to repurpose this partition for treble like the "Cust" partition on xiaomi devices?

Oh I see it is even bigger than cust on xiaomi. However cust was not used for anything really on Custom ROMs. Bluetooth might be more challenging. But I would say, yes it is possible - it is just matter of a dev that would be willing and able to do such thing and it is not an easy nor fast thing.

I would have no issue giving up Bluetooth functionality entirely. For the way I use my phone it is worth the trade.

Would that space be reserved as a buffer for transfers and streaming?

RobboW said:
Would that space be reserved as a buffer for transfers and streaming?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
only one way to find out! send something and check
Today I had to send a 200 mb file to a friend, and for that stuff we use FTP Server and FTPCafe. I decided to try to make a 5GHz AP and see what kind of speeds we could get out of the transfer.
27000 KB/s... That's around 25 MB/s. For file transfer Bluetooth is dead to me, and i don't really use bt audio at all
I don't know about others but it'd be better to have this treble thing even though we have to modify the universal ROMs

Interesting... I'd love to see this work, but as someone above mentioned, the extra space could be used as a buffer for transfering files. Then again, I hardly ever transfer over BT.
It's worth a shot.

I have used Android devices since 2013 and have never felt the need to use Bluetooth, aside from on the odd occasion to connect a Xbox or PS4 controller. Almost everyone with the Axon 7 uses the headphone jack to listen to audio anyway, (because of the DAC) so it seems like a good sacrifice if it means getting Project Treble on our device.

P650SE said:
I have used Android devices since 2013 and have never felt the need to use Bluetooth, aside from on the odd occasion to connect a Xbox or PS4 controller. Almost everyone with the Axon 7 uses the headphone jack to listen to audio anyway, (because of the DAC) so it seems like a good sacrifice if it means getting Project Treble on our device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think we even have to mess with Bluetooth firmware, it uses less than 1MB so we can leave it be, as for people saying it's used as buffer, android uses /cache to buffer not the firmware partition, firmware is read only at all times while system is active

KevinX8 said:
I don't think we even have to mess with Bluetooth firmware, it uses less than 1MB so we can leave it be, as for people saying it's used as buffer, android uses /cache to buffer not the firmware partition, firmware is read only at all times while system is active
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just looked and it seems that the Cest parition was only 830mb or so, less than what we have here. So, if someone is daring enough it might be possible. Would need to create a new partition with the remaining room instead of just using a full partition already on the device. But, if that definitely isn't a buffer and if we do indeed have that wasted space then it might be possible. Awesome!

JTruj1ll0923 said:
Just looked and it seems that the Cest parition was only 830mb or so, less than what we have here. So, if someone is daring enough it might be possible. Would need to create a new partition with the remaining room instead of just using a full partition already on the device. But, if that definitely isn't a buffer and if we do indeed have that wasted space then it might be possible. Awesome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you were to create a partition with the unused space on bluetooth you would have to repartition the device. which is basically the one and only thing we are trying to avoid here. Otherwise yeah, we create another partition with the ~4 wasted gb on /system or with some /data space and profit.

Choose an username... said:
if you were to create a partition with the unused space on bluetooth you would have to repartition the device. which is basically the one and only thing we are trying to avoid here. Otherwise yeah, we create another partition with the ~4 wasted gb on /system or with some /data space and profit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but would it be possible to use /bt_firmware as /vendor without messing with the files in there already? Like would it be okay to leave the files in the new /vendor or does it need to be in the same /bt_firmware? Because if those files could be in /vendor then I doubt it would matter that much. But of course we don't want to mess up bluetooth to do it.

JTruj1ll0923 said:
True, but would it be possible to use /bt_firmware as /vendor without messing with the files in there already? Like would it be okay to leave the files in the new /vendor or does it need to be in the same /bt_firmware? Because if those files could be in /vendor then I doubt it would matter that much. But of course we don't want to mess up bluetooth to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not getting it. It's either/or. Either we use that partition and mess up whatever we need to mess up in our way, or we repartition, which is hella risky and most probably nobody here will make a tool for it

Choose an username... said:
You're not getting it. It's either/or. Either we use that partition and mess up whatever we need to mess up in our way, or we repartition, which is hella risky and most probably nobody here will make a tool for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I wasn't getting it. That's why my whole post was asking questions, not trying to give false solutions.

1gb... camon, buy an sd card...

pelelademadera said:
1gb... camon, buy an sd card...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not about the space it's about the partition. You didn't get the point of this thread.

OrdenKrieger said:
It's not about the space it's about the partition. You didn't get the point of this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone have 64 gb, split data partition is the same and less risky
Enviado desde mi ZTE Axon 7 mediante Tapatalk

pelelademadera said:
The phone have 64 gb, split data partition is the same and less risky
Enviado desde mi ZTE Axon 7 mediante Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sure, all good, and how do you plan to repartition the phone?
Will YOU make the tool necessary, risk your device?
It's much easier (or rather, much more possible) to use an already existing partition and modify the GSI's to use it as the vendor partition.

Choose an username... said:
Oh sure, all good, and how do you plan to repartition the phone?
Will YOU make the tool necessary, risk your device?
It's much easier (or rather, much more possible) to use an already existing partition and modify the GSI's to use it as the vendor partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bu why you need a new partition? Or an existent one to do what?
Enviado desde mi ZTE Axon 7 mediante Tapatalk

pelelademadera said:
Bu why you need a new partition? Or an existent one to do what?
Enviado desde mi ZTE Axon 7 mediante Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install GSI's via treble?

Maybe its simpler with system image partition?
Enviado desde mi ZTE Axon 7 mediante Tapatalk

Related

[DEV] The project to port Android(froyo) on S8500 (8530)

Hi All.
It's my thread - port Android on Wave S8500(also S8530).
Wellcome developers and designers.
Last state of project:
06/13/2011 Now working on Android 2.3.3 (Source GB for GT-I9000 and M130K)
not working - modem and GPS.
04/04/2011 Memory allocation now is correct!
05/11/2011 I have full schematic for phone
and we're ready to get a fully working kernel.
Full decriptions of GPIO is attached.
source for kernel and initramfs here:
github.com/Oleg-k/S8500_Kernel_2.6.32
github.com/Oleg-k/initramfs_2.6.32_S8500
(real shame if you ask me)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please expect not too much from me.
1.
My other handsets are from 2006... NEVER hold Android handset in my own Hand...
2.
I'm Windows User.
Linux/Unix ... I know only 1 or 2 Commands
I've never formated my SD Card nor any Harddrive with Linux ext4, JFS, ReiserFS or XFS
3.
I NEVER worked with IDA or something similar.
Installed yes, but then my Head exploded
Brain too small.
4.
Many missing parts...
Why I should kill my alive handset, as I have no real chance to reanimate it...
- no Riff Box
- no PCB to play with
I AM NOT the right man to port Android nor to find Security hole
You can make this post sticky.
NO joke, expect not too much from me. We can learn together... but this takes time.
Many time. Months, maybe years...
Best Regards
after many many variant, i found the right boot+sbl+param.lsf for kernel message output.
this is my last bootlogo.
how it can be seen, there is a problem with memory allocation.
oleg_k said:
after many many variant, i found the right boot+sbl+param.lsf for kernel message output.
this is my last bootlogo.
how it can be seen, there is a problem with memory allocation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great of you to keep us posted! \o/
hmmm... as a matter of interest - I noticed you're using kernel 2.6.35.7, when I look at the original I9000 source that's 2.6.29....
what does that source say as to why it failed in bootmem.c @ line 341?
Not enough memory, permissions, wrong offset?
oleg_k said:
not yet( Starting but don't finish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats not happening? Oleg_k would you be able to PM me with a copy of your work, files and so forth i might be able to help you out.
t0mm13b said:
+1 for bootloaders - abso-frickin-lutely....there should be a standard bootloader... meh.... not sure about meteor - haven't seen it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I'm holding a meteor wave here, bought around christmas. How much onboard storage does you device have? mine says it only has 512 i think... stupid meteor thinking i wouldn't notice....
sabianadmin said:
Well I'm holding a meteor wave here, bought around christmas. How much onboard storage does you device have? mine says it only has 512 i think... stupid meteor thinking i wouldn't notice....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean to tell me that Meteor bundled a 512Mb memory card?
I have 4Gb on mine...this memory thing is a bit mystifying dontcha think, despite the discussion on another thread about the nand chipset.... on the one hand some say its 256Mb, others say 512Mb...
I tried the versions 2.6.32 and 2.6.35.
I post sbl+boot+param.lfs and config file for kernel making.
Last time u had problem with lcd_rst pin..did u figure that out?
t0mm13b said:
You mean to tell me that Meteor bundled a 512Mb memory card?
I have 4Gb on mine...this memory thing is a bit mystifying dontcha think, despite the discussion on another thread about the nand chipset.... on the one hand some say its 256Mb, others say 512Mb...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i mean Meteor gave me some (seeminly non existant) version of the wave that has 512 internal storage. Im pretty sure its meant to have 2-4gb at the minimum.
sabianadmin said:
No i mean Meteor gave me some (seeminly non existant) version of the wave that has 512 internal storage. Im pretty sure its meant to have 2-4gb at the minimum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wave have 2gb of internal storage, but only 512mb are free for the user.
Otacon_ahs said:
Wave have 2gb of internal storage, but only 512mb are free for the user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wave S8500 have 2Gb of internal storage which are partitioned (bada 1.0.2):
-about 512Mb for messages (mail+sms);
-about 420Mb for user files;
-about 1Gb for system files (os+apps+widget+java)
You can find it in: Setting-->Memory-->Memory Status-->Common Memory
@ oleg_k
1.
How to bypass to write/overwrite Boot without JTAG?
I stuck in problems with Multiloader to write decrypted unmodified Original Boot. See here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12607344&postcount=34
2.
How to build valid Bootimage for JTAG or file(s) to use your uploaded files.
Maybe you could please upload your working Bootimage from S8500?
So we had something to start with...
3.
You have working fallback/recovery plan? To get back to working bada S8500.
Or only JTAG...
4.
Anyway. Thanx for uploading files for study.
Best Regards
To adfree,
1)now the steps bada->android or android->bada is only via JTAG.
i'm don't know any other way.
2)i posted full working bootloader files in first message of my thread.
3)i will post full jtag image with semi-working android in 2 hours.
Regards
my friend
Thank you oleg_k
Last Question for today.
So I should use simple Flashtool from I9000 to flash these Boot Files into S8500 ?
Sorry for stupid Question. But I'm totally Android Noob.
Thank you for uploading files.
Best Regards
oleg_k said:
To adfree,
1)now the steps bada->android or android->bada is only via JTAG.
i'm don't know any other way.
2)i posted full working bootloader files in first message of my thread.
3)i will post full jtag image with semi-working android in 2 hours.
Regards
my friend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We can think about running SBL or any other bootloader (anybody with sources for that?) through the FOTA hole as I described in the thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1020444
This way we don't need JTAG for initial flashing. It'd be also good to perform testing without touching BADA in the NAND, but we either need to reorganize partitions or boot from SD card
Best Regards,
mijoma
I think an combination will lead to success... so work together.
At this status it is maybe tooo risky to play without JTAG.
As we not know, how Android will handle Memory...
Okay, correction. I don't know.
In worst case scenario you need JTAG to reanimate Wave...
We have 2 steps/parts.
Android part.
Display, Kernel, Memory, etc...
This part is mandatory in my opinion.
Then second part, how to start Android. Then there are several theories...
BootLoader, No BootLoader, FOTA... inject via JTAG into RAM...
internal Memory or Dual Boot from SD Card...
Anyway, without proper modified Android part we can't use all our Security Holes.
As more infos we have, better, as more working solution we have.
So more chance to improve something.
At the moment we can only improve Video Quality.
Best Regards
Mijoma,
I totally agree with you,maybe this is the way to deploying android on S8500.
But now,i think about build working kernel for our s8500.
Maybe you helping with analize memory init on original bootloader?
like this - http://code.google.com/p/jetdroid/wiki/OriginalDramInit
Regards
Seems like using mijoma's discovery you should be able to replace booting and maybe make it to boot from SD card using a open source booter a compatible android kernel with selfmade drivers.
Maybe that could be the way, sadly we'd lose internal storage since we wouldn't be touching bada partition, anyway Android should be working fine from a SD card, It does properly on other handsets which internal storage is nothing more than a microSD card instead of flash memory.
I think losing 2GB on internal and XMB on microSD is a good deal for having android on our handsets. Happily I got 16GB SD on my wave xP. Anyway once you achieved that we could gather to use the internal flash memory partition
Jioma I suggest you to work with adfree (along your knowledge) and oleg_k they're our wave masters, baybe you together could gather to achieve this great project. I require you to work on this oh please jioma=(
Ok thats great news! Finally we have a method of booting other platforms on the Wave. What we need is as much information on the s5800 chipset as we can get so we know exactly what to compile and what drivers are needed in the linux kernel for android. Someone get in touch with Cyanogen mod and ask him for help and offer him a wave or something ha.

[Q] Changing Partition Layout and internal filesystem

Since the bootloader is bypasased, is it possible to change the partition layout of the internal storage?
Shaumux said:
Since the bootloader is bypasased, is it possible to change the partition layout of the internal storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may i ask why exactly?
btw... wrong section...
why is not a good question, for android,
a partial answer would be because its possible on other phones.
i thought this is related to android devlopment and the bootloader dev so this would be the right section
i'm sorry if its not.
anyway the question is still unanswered
Shaumux said:
why is not a good question, for android,
a partial answer would be because its possible on other phones.
i thought this is related to android devlopment and the bootloader dev so this would be the right section
i'm sorry if its not.
anyway the question is still unanswered
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am not sure if it will work... are u thinking about changing sizes of internal partitions or something like that?
can u guide me to the links where they have changed partition layout on other androids? will read up on the advantages/etc...
Here http://alpharev.nl/ and
here http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/10726-how-to-increase-desire-internal-storage/
The biggest advantage i can think of would be to reallocate wasted space to where its really need, which will depend on the user i guess.
This brings up another interesting thing to my mind.
Changing the filesystem.
It is possible in android, can't say about X10 though.
maybe just for the fun of it or maybe another filesystem may give better performance.
What about support for ext2 filesystem ? That would help wont it ?
Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI
Shaumux said:
Here http://alpharev.nl/ and
here http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/10726-how-to-increase-desire-internal-storage/
The biggest advantage i can think of would be to reallocate wasted space to where its really need, which will depend on the user i guess.
This brings up another interesting thing to my mind.
Changing the filesystem.
It is possible in android, can't say about X10 though.
maybe just for the fun of it or maybe another filesystem may give better performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just became a little slow on fs ques. I hope it is possible.
Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI
@realunited123: well i can't say if ext2 will really help or not, its quite outdated now and i also don't think that it would be a good choice for fs on flash.
But btrfs or ext4 would be different.
btrfs specially has many features for flash memory.
But the main question is can these things be really done since the bootloader isn't cracked just bypassed, so would it still search the original partitions?
Lol i meant ext4. Damn swiftkey changes it automatically.
Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI
And also certain parts of nand can not be accessed/written without bricking the device. So there is a big chance it is not possible.
Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI
ext4
Shaumux said:
Since the bootloader is bypasased, is it possible to change the partition layout of the internal storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that would be big performance boost for our device.
with samsung galaxy s my mate using ext4, and file system performance went hight!
i am waiting for a sollution to change from ext2 (old very old) to ext4 !
anyway : i am using linux as desktop, and server , and PHONE! and only my pgone is locked to ext2....
actually currently we are on yaffs2 and not ext2
tiborprogmed said:
that would be big performance boost for our device.
with samsung galaxy s my mate using ext4, and file system performance went hight!
i am waiting for a sollution to change from ext2 (old very old) to ext4 !
anyway : i am using linux as desktop, and server , and PHONE! and only my pgone is locked to ext2....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are not on ext2. The reason the SGS sees such an improvement is because the original filesystem sucks. The X10's is yaffs2, which is good to begin with, so we would only see minimal gains, if any. zdzihu has had those modules for a long time and doesn't waste our time with them for that reason.
ext4 is not a good idea. While performance under ext4 may be better, yaffs2 is optimized for wear leveling and error correction under flash memory. Those people running ext4 on their internal flash are wearing out their NAND storage at up to twice as fast, possibly faster. Their phone will die much quicker.
This is possible yes. But we would need to have a modified flashtool to support it, and we would need a modified recovery build and some other firmware files for the modified flashtool to use. This is because we cannot access the boot partition or the kernel via recovery, so we can't run a fancy script like the brilliant CustomMTD script/patcher (for example - mainly for HTC phones if I remember correctly).
While I'm nearly certain that's the rough idea of what has to be done, I could still be wrong because it's beyond my ability.
jonusc said:
ext4 is not a good idea. While performance under ext4 may be better, yaffs2 is optimized for wear leveling and error correction under flash memory. Those people running ext4 on their internal flash are wearing out their NAND storage at up to twice as fast, possibly faster. Their phone will die much quicker.
This is possible yes. But we would need to have a modified flashtool to support it, and we would need a modified recovery build and some other firmware files for the modified flashtool to use. This is because we cannot access the boot partition or the kernel via recovery, so we can't run a fancy script like the brilliant CustomMTD script/patcher (for example - mainly for HTC phones if I remember correctly).
While I'm nearly certain that's the rough idea of what has to be done, I could still be wrong because it's beyond my ability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but we may still use UBIFS or whatever.
The main thing here is that the users gets a choice and i don't see any problem if its through flashtool atleast for now.
and i think the ability to resize the partitions would also be a very useful thing since the rom partiitons seems to be excessively sized than required especially with custom roms.

[DEV][KERNEL]f2fs support

Samsung recently announced the new F2FS file system https://lwn.net/Articles/518718/, Im going to get the ball rolling on this, i have compiled a kernel that supports the new file system based off of fauxs source. im only posting the zimage for people who know what they are doing. For this to be usable a new recovery needs to be built to support formatting to F2FS. and possible the bootloader(not currently possible). so the best approach at this point is to build a new recovery and format only system and data to f2fs leaving boot as ext4. Im looking into it but im not very famlier with recovery. modifications need to be made to the android build system but they are trivial. Im ataching a compiled zimage and the patch files to add to any kernel. patches 01 and 16 dont apply so they will need to be done by hand. everything else applies clean.
This looks very intriguing, I haven't heard of it until now and it looks like it could bring some definite speed advantages. I can't wait to give this a whirl on my Android devices and my Arch Linux install which runs off of an SSD.
its going to be a challenge to get it runnig under android, its going to take some collaboration and time
Looks interesting. I may try to help when I get time but I haven't built an n7 kernel. Shouldn't be hard. Also need to add kernel support for the filesystem and at least add the mkfs tool to recovery so it can be formatted via adb shell.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
tiny4579 said:
Looks interesting. I may try to help when I get time but I haven't built an n7 kernel. Shouldn't be hard. Also need to add kernel support for the filesystem and at least add the mkfs tool to recovery so it can be formatted via adb shell.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The largest change that needs to happen right now is recovery, which I'm not very familiar with
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2
The bootloader doesn't need to know anything about the filesystem, it loads the kernel directly a preset offset.
That's why you flash a kernel, and not mount the boot partition and unzip it.
So, all that's needed to support a new filesystem is adding the code to the kernel, and enabling it in the defconfig, and then you can use userspace utilities to format partitions to that new filesystem.
F2FS is still immature, they haven't released a fsck tool for it yet, and the mkfs binary they provided is probably x86, so there's no way you can use it on the Nexus 7 now.
Just checked out their sourceforge project, check below post, they have provided source for mkfs.
Also, the recovery needs to be modified only if the default format of the partitions is being changed, and that'll need changes in the fstab as well to mount the filesystem as something other than what it was set to by default.
Nothing will need to be changed in the Android Build System as well, unless you wan't to generate f2fs system images.
f2fs-tools-1.0.0.tar.gz includes source, not binaries.
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1210.2/00005.html 1.5 to 2 times faster, Im going to look into this again it seems very worthwhile
I don't know much about this stuff, more of a user over here, but I sure know when to get excited about something. :victory:
I've read a few things about the new file system and was particularly impressed with the benchmark performance. I really hope to see this becoming a standard feature of android. Please keep up the work. You've found yourself an early adopter.
Thanks again and kudos!
aaronpoweruser said:
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1210.2/00005.html 1.5 to 2 times faster, Im going to look into this again it seems very worthwhile
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I also think this seems very worthwhile, maybe even porting it to maguro. This thread was a nice start, I've created a thread on my device's general section, but no replies pushing forward yet.
I looked into it the best option for now would be to format an external SDcard, but that would make it un mountable by a pc. In order to make it work with an internal storage the android build tools will need to be reverted reworked as well as recovery
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
aaronpoweruser said:
I looked into it the best option for now would be to format an external SDcard, but that would make it un mountable by a pc. In order to make it work with an internal storage the android build tools will need to be reverted reworked as well as recovery
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, that's what i thought too, build tools/recovery, a few touches here and there xD
f2fs would be unreadable by a pc... by a Windows pc.

[Q] Why using UBIFS?

Hi,
I recently got to know, that my tab is using UBIFS as file system...what are the advantages compared to the normal ext2-ext4?
I thought about migrating to the ext filesystems, but if someone tells me that UBIFS is better, I'd stay on UBIFS...
Regards
Hi,
TheSSJ said:
Hi,
I recently got to know, that my tab is using UBIFS as file system...what are the advantages compared to the normal ext2-ext4?
I thought about migrating to the ext filesystems, but if someone tells me that UBIFS is better, I'd stay on UBIFS...
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the problem running ext2/3/4 on flash is - sooner or later you will kill the flash. One might not notice it say, on a USB stick, when data is just copied from one place to another occasionally, but things look different if you use it as your root file system where things get written onto it all the time.
I am sure there are more of them around, I am only familiar wit JFFS2 and UBIFS, both are designed for flash media and implement wear leveling routines to make sure that the flash lasts longer.
JFFS2 is somewhat old now, UBIFS is newer and from what I know - better.
I use devices with UBIFS at work and it proved itself very robust, during development I often simply plug off mains without a clean shutdown and I still never ran into a file system corruption or anything like that. So, good to know that our tablets use it
Kind regards,
Jin
Thanks for the clarification. Another question:
Does any kernel support UBIFS or do I normally need to insmod the corresponding module?
TheSSJ said:
I recently got to know, that my tab is using UBIFS as file system...what are the advantages compared to the normal ext2-ext4?
I thought about migrating to the ext file systems, but if someone tells me that UBIFS is better, I'd stay on UBIFS...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Different things, different usages.
UBIFS, YAFFS2 etc are file systems for NAND flash devices. Those memories are not block devices.
EXT3, EXT4, VFAT etc are file systems for block devices, and can not use non block devices such as NAND flash devices.
To be able to use a block device file system on a NAND device, you'll need a Flash Translation Layer (FTL). In every USB memory stick, SSD, SDcard etc, you are viewing the NAND flash via such a translation integrated into the device itself, hence you are able to format is using an ordinary file system such as FAT or EXT4. In GNU/Linux (hence Android as well), you've got such a translation layer in the MTD device (look in /proc/mtd).
TheSSJ said:
Thanks for the clarification. Another question:
Does any kernel support UBIFS or do I normally need to insmod the corresponding module?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theoretically it should be doable if you compile the ubifs modules for your kernel, I did not try that yet, when I was using it for some non tablet ARM9 boxes I simply compiled it into the kernel:
CONFIG_MTD_UBI=y
CONFIG_MTD_UBI_WL_THRESHOLD=4096
CONFIG_MTD_UBI_BEB_RESERVE=1
CONFIG_UBIFS_FS=y
CONFIG_UBIFS_FS_XATTR=y
kuisma said:
Different things, different usages.
UBIFS, YAFFS2 etc are file systems for NAND flash devices. Those memories are not block devices.
EXT3, EXT4, VFAT etc are file systems for block devices, and can not use non block devices such as NAND flash devices.
To be able to use a block device file system on a NAND device, you'll need a Flash Translation Layer (FTL). In every USB memory stick, SSD, SDcard etc, you are viewing the NAND flash via such a translation integrated into the device itself, hence you are able to format is using an ordinary file system such as FAT or EXT4. In GNU/Linux (hence Android as well), you've got such a translation layer in the MTD device (look in /proc/mtd).
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It turned out that TrekStor Ventos 9.7 tablet uses ext4 file systems, does that mean that this is because of the way how they integrated the flash?
As far I know that for USB sticks / SDcards you can not get around the FTL, would be interesting if this is also the case for the Ventos tablet or if switching to UBIFS would be possible there. Main problem with FTL in my opinion is, that it is usually optimized for specific use cases and mostly those use cases do not include write patters that you have when the device is used as a root file system. That's where UBIFS does a much better job at preserving the flash.
Jin^eLD said:
It turned out that TrekStor Ventos 9.7 tablet uses ext4 file systems, does that mean that this is because of the way how they integrated the flash?
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Somewhere you'll need the FTL. If using MMC technology, it's in the memory device itself.
Jin^eLD said:
As far I know that for USB sticks / SDcards you can not get around the FTL, would be interesting if this is also the case for the Ventos tablet or if switching to UBIFS would be possible there.
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If FTL in software, such as in the MTD case, this would be possible, yes.
Jin^eLD said:
Main problem with FTL in my opinion is, that it is usually optimized for specific use cases and mostly those use cases do not include write patters that you have when the device is used as a root file system. That's where UBIFS does a much better job at preserving the flash.
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Android places its root file system in RAM, not in flash.
The FTL is what differs the flash memory (SSDs, MMCs etc) vendors from each other. Some manufacturers priorities read speed, other write speed, and yet other random access etc. Some uses more spare chips extending the life of the device, at the cost of a more expensive unit. Other throttles the write speed to guarantee the functionality during the warranty period. Basically you'll get what you pay for.
kuisma said:
Android places its root file system in RAM, not in flash.
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Oh.. OK, I did not know that, I'm still quite new to Android. So far I've been playing around with ARM9 devices, building root file systems with OpenEmbedded, but just starting with Android now.
kuisma said:
The FTL is what differs the flash memory (SSDs, MMCs etc) vendors from each other. Some manufacturers priorities read speed, other write speed, and yet other random access etc. Some uses more spare chips extending the life of the device, at the cost of a more expensive unit. Other throttles the write speed to guarantee the functionality during the warranty period. Basically you'll get what you pay for.
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-> "Basically you'll get what you pay for."
That's what I fear I had very positive experiences with UBIFS so I'd rather rely on it doing the job than on an FTL, which I know nothing about, that is used in my el-cheapo tablet.
Jin^eLD said:
Oh.. OK, I did not know that, I'm still quite new to Android. So far I've been playing around with ARM9 devices, building root file systems with OpenEmbedded, but just starting with Android now.
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Also, once booted, it remounts root as read-only, so I wouldn't worry too much about wear leveling.
Jin^eLD said:
-> "Basically you'll get what you pay for."
That's what I fear I had very positive experiences with UBIFS so I'd rather rely on it doing the job than on an FTL, which I know nothing about, that is used in my el-cheapo tablet.
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Sure, if you know what you are doing, controlling the FTL, and you can optimize the performance for the particular task you are using the device for. Buying a ready-to-use device using an integrated FTL, and the manufacturer have no other choice than adjusting the FTL parameters for the average customer usage. Still, in most cases I would say this is good enough and the risk of manually creating an even worse profile is quite likely for a noob such as myself.
kuisma said:
Different things, different usages.
UBIFS, YAFFS2 etc are file systems for NAND flash devices. Those memories are not block devices.
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Click to collapse
Oh, this explains why I got a corrupted recovery by dumping /dev/block/mtdblock3 on my uImage/ubifs powered tab...It worked when I dumped /dev/mtd/mtd3 though...
Thanks for the explanation!
need help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hey bro
how can i take backup of my ubifs rom
and flash ubifs rom on my mt6572 ( in case needed)
TheSSJ said:
Hi,
I recently got to know, that my tab is using UBIFS as file system...what are the advantages compared to the normal ext2-ext4?
I thought about migrating to the ext filesystems, but if someone tells me that UBIFS is better, I'd stay on UBIFS...
Regards
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Click to collapse
Hey bro, you said youll migrate to ext4 if it is better. How can you that? Ive been searching for a way to format my ubifs phone to ext4. I hope you can help me

broken Webtop (atrix 4g)

Hello! I'm new here and I don't know where to write about it. So, I have atrix and laptopdock. Also I have Tegra2Ubuntop there and everything worked very well. But now, when I insert my atrix into dock I see..... standard desktop!!! When I type sudo gpaint or sudo dosbox these programs doesn't start. That is to say all my programms damaged. Although I can see old folders such as lxdepanel or lxde. File manager show me these directories: 1) adas ; 2) desktop ; 3)MOT ; 4) 9.8 GB Volume; 5)SD/MMC Drive, But I don't see directory OSH. Before it, I tried to run ubuntu linux. I followed by instructions from Complete Linux installer. I think I damaged webtop (which is on my flash card) by using android terminal. (While I tried to run Linux) What I should to do? Please HELP ME !
P.S. Hope you understand me.
Sbf?
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
Yup. Or there was a project called simoletop, is original webtop with minimal changes. You could flash it and kibda of start over
Enviado desde mi MB860 usando Tapatalk 2
hm sorry for my english... But I said that I have laptop dock station with Tegra2Ubuntop. And had installed Complete Linux Installer from market and followed this instructions. (Run linux on your phone) And then destroy osh directory (I guess) And I must install Tegra2Ubuntop again, right?
Nick_Su said:
hm sorry for my english... But I said that I have laptop dock station with Tegra2Ubuntop. And had installed Complete Linux Installer from market and followed this instructions. (Run linux on your phone) And then destroy osh directory (I guess) And I must install Tegra2Ubuntop again, right?
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Click to collapse
You've said in both posts something to the effect of a damaged/destroyed/edited /osh partition. Start with the basics. Flash the sbf, then test your phone on the lapdock to ensure it works. Then work from there and rebuild your device the way you want it.
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
only one note. My atrix and webtop work well (but the last with the standard environment) "Flash the sbf" - Now I'm really afraid to destroy my atrix. But the main thing I understood - I should reinstall it.
Nick_Su said:
only one note. My atrix and webtop work well (but the last with the standard environment) "Flash the sbf" - Now I'm really afraid to destroy my atrix. But the main thing I understood - I should reinstall it.
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Click to collapse
Sbfs aren't that scary if you are using the ones made for your region. But yes, reinstalling is the end result
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
ok, I have linux on my PC and when I connect my atrix I can get access to osh. I have 16 Gb flash drive and I think to format osh into ntfs. So I will have flash card 16Gb volume. (ntfs) (now it's 9.8 gb ntfs and 4 gb osh). And try to reinstall again
Good luck with NTFS. Honestly, it seems you don't really know what you're doing and you're about to make your situation even worse. But I could be wrong.
hmm.... you are right! I'm not sure with it. So I try to get a good advice from xda
Ok, let me recap to see if we are missing something here.
First of all, do not touch the /osh partition in any way other than flashing something. You wil break a lot of things if you do so and maybe end up with a nice, hi-tech battery powered paperweight.
Now. You said that linux on android destroyed your webtop yet somehow you can load it up..?
Third: is very unlikely that s tool designed for all kind if android phones just smashed through an very rare(as in only two devices of the thousands) partition thats not standard.
If you installed ubuntop, what prevents you from installing it again?
Enviado desde mi MB860 usando Tapatalk 2
andresrivas said:
Now. You said that linux on android destroyed your webtop yet somehow you can load it up..?
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If I understood right, so.... Yes, I can run webtop. Open PDF, launch Firefox and so on. (But it's not a TegraUbuntop! just standart environment)
Second, It's my supposition that Complete Linux Installer (exactly android terminal) has destroyed /osh.
I must to confess.... the other guy has installed Ubuntop, not me.
And now I have Android 2.3.6 with Webtop 1.3 but If I install (flash) android 4.x ICS so, I have webtop 3.0 . But what's better? Reinstall ubuntop or install android 4x ICS ? Or you have other ideas?
Aaaaaahhhh
Now I get it. Ubuntop was installed on a second partition on the external sd card, that's why you can load the original webtop, because is in internal sdcard partion.
You got 3 options.
1) Remove linux on android (which also uses external sdcard's second partition, that's why your ubuntop got overwritten) and install ubuntop again (using webtop2sd, all the info is in the forums).
2) Upgrade to atrics (or icsrom) which is the only firmware that has webtop 3.0. Beware, because webtop 3.0 is only android with a tablet interface, not a linux fesktop as original webtop.
3) keep the original webtop and linux4android
Enviado desde mi MB860 usando Tapatalk 2
andresrivas said:
Aaaaaahhhh
2) Upgrade to atrics (or icsrom) which is the only firmware that has webtop 3.0. Beware, because webtop 3.0 is only android with a tablet interface, not a linux fesktop as original webtop.
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Click to collapse
I know about it. But it seems quite dangerous. I can destroy my atrix.
And I can't use Complete Linux Installer because it doesn't work. (something wrong with it) So I have standart webtop
But I'd prefer 1 option. (in my view, it's more safety) But what I should to do with /osh? It's already exist! (and takes 4gb) In my opinion, I should clean it. I mean format it into ntfs (fat32) and only then try to reinstall ubuntu. What can you advice?
So your device is broken and you want to fix it, but you don't actually want to do anything because everything is scary and looks dangerous?
Come one dude, get over yourself. Either you want to fix it or you don't. You've been given plenty of advice, now quit whining and do something about it.
Nick_Su said:
But what I should to do with /osh? It's already exist! (and takes 4gb) In my opinion, I should clean it. I mean format it into ntfs (fat32) and only then try to reinstall ubuntu.
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Click to collapse
it's my last question. And then I'll act
It looks like you need to learn URGENTLY about filesystems, mounts and mountpoints, before you destroy everything. Your /osh is most definitely NOT 4GB in size, what you're looking at is another part of the filesystem (could be anywhere but is most likely on your external SD card) that just happens to be attached to /osh.
hm ok. By the way, I'll use webtop2sd, but webtop has been already transferred to external Sd card! What I need to do? Ext3 already exist. And if I insert new Sd card?
Nick_Su said:
hm ok. By the way, I'll use webtop2sd, but webtop has been already transferred to external Sd card! What I need to do? Ext3 already exist. And if I insert new Sd card?
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Click to collapse
Webtop2sd has already been transferred? Ok then why are we still dealing with this issue? You chose a method given by andresrivas, now finish setting up your webtop setup. And what do you think will happen if your phone is setup to read something from an sd card, and suprise! The sd card isn't there? Hint - file not found ring a bell? This is really basic stuff and you're turning it into an "i'm a noob and wants everyone else to fix my mistake and do the legwork to get info to my questions" session.
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
Just skip the webtpo2sd setup and carry on to next step.
Do not touch the osh partition on internal sd.
You should read about how linux mounts storage devices onto the filesystem so you can get an idea about what's going on there and act accordingly
Enviado desde mi MB860 usando Tapatalk 2

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