Database Users

Help me. I'm an amnesiac. [Figure out partition layout w/o removing SDCard]

Here's the deal. I can't remember how I partitioned the SD Card in my Nexus One
at the time of setup. I have an 8GB card which I pulled from my G1, formatted it
via Amon-Ra and got my N1 all set.
This was in January.
Now that I'm looking to try out the Sense ROMs, I need a swap partition.
And I don't know now if I'd added a swap partition or not
I know that I can use a memory card reader, fire up Paragon
Partition Manager (or boot into Ubuntu) and figure it out.
But is there any way to figure out my current partition layout
without swapping out the card?
_

Boot into recovery. AmonRA's recovery allows you to partition/restore the SD card--think it's the third option down the list or so.

grainysand said:
Boot into recovery. AmonRA's recovery allows you to partition/restore the SD card--think it's the third option down the list or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'm aware of that. As I've noted in my rather long and rambling post,
I used Amon-RA to partition the card, back in January.
The question now is, how do I figure out the partition layout
withOUT repartitioning the card?
EDIT: Thanks, grainysand. I took a look at the wording of the first post
and have changed it, so that it's more specific about what I'm looking for.

I suggest getting a microSD to usb adapter and plugging it into your computer then getting partition magic. This shows you any partition on any device. It also lets you modify them. Otherwise if you use linux, get gparted.
Hope this helps.
Vonapets

vonapets said:
I suggest getting a microSD to usb adapter and plugging it into your computer then getting partition magic. This shows you any partition on any device. It also lets you modify them. Otherwise if you use linux, get gparted.
Hope this helps.
Vonapets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This wouldn't work, because the USB mount (via regular prompt or Recovery)
option mounts the FAT partition only. And this is what the Partition Manager
would see.
Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

bump
10chars.

Clone SD card (with a2sd on)?

Question:
I've noticed I'm pretty much at my limit for space on my current SD card (like 80MB remaining on a 4GB!)...
I've ordered an 8GB card to replace this one... but how can I "clone" my current 4GB card (with a2sd partitions) and then copy it over to my 8GB card, without losing data, settings, apps, etc? Is there a way?
Thanks in advance.

Do this all from within Clockwork Recovery:
1) Make a nandroid backup
2) Connect the phone to a computer
3) Partitions menu > mount USB storage
4) Copy all contents from the old SD card to a temporary folder on your computer (including the clockworkmod folder which contains the nandroid backup you just took)
5) Unmount and disconnect from computer.
6) Pull battery to shut the phone off, or if you would prefer you can boot the phone and then turn the phone off immediately afterward. Pulling battery just saves time.
7) Put new SD card in
8) Boot into clockwork
9) Format the card with Clockwork w/ ext partition
10) Connect to computer, mount USB storage again, copy all files back to the phone
11) Unmount and disconnect cable from computer
12) Nandroid > advanced restore > Restore sd-ext only
13) Reboot and you're done.
And if something goes wrong, it's not really a big deal since you will still have the original files on the old SD card so you can try again or ask for help to try another method.

Sounds complicated enough to work. I'll try when the card comes and let you all know. Thanks!

gfinockio said:
Sounds complicated enough to work. I'll try when the card comes and let you all know. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha yeah, I think it's the easiest way to do it with Windows, since you can't read the ext partition from the computer. You could probably just copy the contents of both partitions through Linux if you're comfortable doing that.

Doesn't a nandroid backup the ext partition too?
If you're using windows you could just backup your fat32 partition on your PC and partition your new card and then copy all your files back and do your nandroid restore.
I think this would work...

jdwhite87 said:
Doesn't a nandroid backup the ext partition too?
If you're using windows you could just backup your fat32 partition on your PC and partition your new card and then copy all your files back and do your nandroid restore.
I think this would work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clockwork does not back up my ext partition. It can't mount it or anything. Not sure why. Might be because its ext4, but when I do nandroids the sd-ext backup always fails.
I have to use Ubuntu and mount as storage. Then both of my partitions mount on my computer and I can do as I please. For me this seems easiest anyway. Simple copy and paste and it can be done from a live cd for those that dont already have Ubuntu.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.

drumist said:
Do this all from within Clockwork Recovery:
1) Make a nandroid backup
2) Connect the phone to a computer
3) Partitions menu > mount USB storage
4) Copy all contents from the old SD card to a temporary folder on your computer (including the clockworkmod folder which contains the nandroid backup you just took)
5) Unmount and disconnect from computer.
6) Pull battery to shut the phone off, or if you would prefer you can boot the phone and then turn the phone off immediately afterward. Pulling battery just saves time.
7) Put new SD card in
8) Boot into clockwork
9) Format the card with Clockwork w/ ext partition
10) Connect to computer, mount USB storage again, copy all files back to the phone
11) Unmount and disconnect cable from computer
12) Nandroid > advanced restore > Restore sd-ext only
13) Reboot and you're done.
And if something goes wrong, it's not really a big deal since you will still have the original files on the old SD card so you can try again or ask for help to try another method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm stumped on step 9 - what menu option in Clockwork will format the ext partition? What menu?

gfinockio said:
I'm stumped on step 9 - what menu option in Clockwork will format the ext partition? What menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partitions menu

CallMeAria said:
Partitions menu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version has that menu option? I don't see it.

Interesting. I was sure you could format a card with ext partition through Clockwork but apparently you can't. You can do it through ROM Manager though, so I guess you may have to boot into the phone to get to it.
The programs on the ext partition won't show up yet of course. Don't be alarmed. Just partition the card through ROM Manager, then once you're done doing that, do the nadroid advanced restore. If there are any problems after a reboot (i.e., it didn't work correctly), go back and try doing the regular full nandroid restore.

gfinockio said:
What version has that menu option? I don't see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
v2.5.0.1
This doesnt create a partition though. It just formats an existing partition. You'll have to use drumist's method of going through Rom manager to actually create the ext3 parition from the phone.

CallMeAria said:
v2.5.0.1
This doesnt create a partition though. It just formats an existing partition. You'll have to use drumist's method of going through Rom manager to actually create the ext3 parition from the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?

gfinockio said:
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
someone recommended in another thread that when that happens you just pull out the battery and then use volume down+power to boot back into recovery and it should then work.
But the method I use is to do it from Ubuntu (a linux version). If you dont want to install Ubuntu on your computer you can make a bootable CD or USB drive with Ubuntu on it (directions for this are on the Ubuntu download page) and actually run Ubuntu from the CD/USB without ever installing it on your computer. From there you can use gParted to create paritions. And while I recommend making backups, gparted even allows you to resize and move partitions without deleting anything.

gfinockio said:
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's what I was worried about. My suggestion then is to format the card through linux if you have a SD card reader. Easiest way is to use an Ubuntu LiveCD. Do you know how to do this on your own?
Also, definitely do a full nandroid restore once the SD card is reformatted. Since you booted the phone and tried to install an app, it's possible something got screwed up -- nothing to worry about though because a full nandroid restore should revert everything.

drumist said:
Yeah, that's what I was worried about. My suggestion then is to format the card through linux if you have a SD card reader. Easiest way is to use an Ubuntu LiveCD. Do you know how to do this on your own?
Also, definitely do a full nandroid restore once the SD card is reformatted. Since you booted the phone and tried to install an app, it's possible something got screwed up -- nothing to worry about though because a full nandroid restore should revert everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm reverting back now, going to sleep on it, and then investigate formatting it via LiveCD tomorrow morning. It's been several years since I've had to go near anything Unix.

By the way, another option is to just do a clean install on your phone with a ROM that has ROM Manager built in. Use that to do the format on the SD card.

drumist said:
By the way, another option is to just do a clean install on your phone with a ROM that has ROM Manager built in. Use that to do the format on the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That got me thinking...Ive never had a problem adding an ext partition using Rom Manager. Ive done it to 3 SD cards now without a single issue. BUT, Ive also always done it while on cm6/7 which both came with Rom Manager pre-installed with the rom and quite a bit of integration with the rom manager app...just a thought...
EDIT: Scratch that, I used it for 2 SD cards, the 3rd was done with Ubuntu.

Here's my post from the other thread
jdwhite87 said:
Rom manager - partition SD card - choose your partitions. It will reboot into recovery and try but fail to partition your card. Pull battery. Replace battery - hold volume down and power. Wait for it to try and find the libde. Img then press volume down and it will highlight recovery then press power. It will boot into recovery and finish partitioning your card.
I think that's how I got it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this with two different SD cards on fr008. Both were sandisks. One was a 16 gb class 4 and the other was an 8 gb class 6. I couldn't get gparted to partition the 8 gb for whatever reason. I didn't know what Ubuntu was when I partitioned the 16 gb

It seems like an oversight that maybe of the masses of people with Android devices that one day the general (non-xda) population would want a simple way to transfer their sd card data to a larger card...
I Imagine there are a bunch of people out there clueless.
Hell, I read XDA and there was still no clear simple way in this thread.
(I got here from a Google search for SD CARD CLONE)

Got it to work, finally. Required some back-and-forth with the Nandroid backups, but I have everything running off of my 8GB SD card now, without reinstalling!
Now, to sell off my 4GB card... anyone?

[Q] CM7 SD Boot - Can you expand EXT4

I've had a lot of success creating a bootable CM7 using the size agnostic preparation instructions. (Here) I want to keep the Nook at stock, for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I created a very nice installation on a 16gb uSD card and did a lot of work setting up LP+ and my hundred-odd android apps. (I also have an Evo 4G). I was fortunate enough to get a 32gb uSD at a great price and want to move my installation over to that. The most successful by making an image with the Win32DriveImage and flashing that back to the 32gb uSD card, which leaves a large area of un-partitioned space. I've tried a couple downloaded tools but have been unsuccessful. Is there a command I can use in Terminal Emulator to to do that? I know I can use the agnostic procedure to start from scratch, but I'd really hate to do that.
The only thing that would make starting over is if someone can point me to instructions that would allow me to have an installation that boots from uSD and has fully functional CWR and Rom Manager. I love how it works on my EVO to download and install updates with a couple clicks. (Everything I've tried there seems to mess with the core Nook).
Thanks a lot!
Rob

Use Minitool Partition Wizard, or another windows partition manager to expand the last storage partition.

LBN1 said:
Use Minitool Partition Wizard, or another windows partition manager to expand the last storage partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried a few partition managers and run into the same problem including with MiniTool. It will start the process of expanding or copying and expanding in one step, but it will eventually say "file system error" just before it finishes. It suggests repairing the file system, but none of the tools can do this with the ext4 partition. Still trying though. Gonna give the Acronis partition manager a whirl.

bitbearmi said:
Is there a command I can use in Terminal Emulator to to do that? I know I can use the agnostic procedure to start from scratch, but I'd really hate to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can edit partitions with fdisk from the terminal emulator. I suggest googling, it's a pretty old school tool and isn't very friendly. You should easily be able to resize your "sd" partition with that. Actually more accurately you should be able to delete that last partition and then create a bigger one in it's place. won't keep your data, but you can just copy it over to your computer and resize, then copy back.
Another option would be gparted which comes with basically every live linux cd ever. That one can actually do true resizes and should handle ext4 partitions easily (it is a linux file system after all)
bitbearmi said:
The only thing that would make starting over is if someone can point me to instructions that would allow me to have an installation that boots from uSD and has fully functional CWR and Rom Manager. I love how it works on my EVO to download and install updates with a couple clicks. (Everything I've tried there seems to mess with the core Nook).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to start over. Get a new uboot.bin for your cards boot partition from here.
Then get the clockwordmod kernel and ramdisk from the zip at the end of this post. Put the uImage and uRamdisk on the sd card as uAltImg and uAltRam.
Now when you choose sd:alternate from the boot menu it will boot you into clockwork.

Thank you so much. I think that will do the trick.
..rob

ylixir said:
You don't need to start over. Get a new uboot.bin for your cards boot partition from here.
Then get the clockwordmod kernel and ramdisk from the zip at the end of this post. Put the uImage and uRamdisk on the sd card as uAltImg and uAltRam.
Now when you choose sd:alternate from the boot menu it will boot you into clockwork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. All is well and the dual-boot solution is super-convenient. But I'm a little perplexed as to how to work with CWM in this environment. Ideally I'd like this to work just as it does on my EVO, Rom Manager lets me know there is a new version, I select it, it downloads asks if an want Gapps and backup (yes please) then it does its thing. Maybe that is way too much to ask. If so, then the main things I need to know are how to instal an updated build that I download separately? Do I just copy it to the root of the boot partition.
Sorry for being such a n00b with the nook. Its funny but I'm much more confident messing with my phone, which if bricked, is pretty catastrophic. (LOL)

The instructions for updating CM7 for the agnostic build is in the OP's post for that build.
"How to update to a new build:
put the new build you want to try on the first partition. (the name must be update-cm-*.zip or cm_encore_full*.zip or just update-*.zip)
Boot from the SDcard in the recovery mode (see above) and the new snapshot would be installed.
The partition layout would be preserved, filesystems are NOT reformatted, so your data should be safe."
Also, Easeus Partition Manager is supposed to be able to resize partitions w/o destroying data. YMMV, of course. I used it to extend ext 4 but prior to putting anything there.

Didn't have any luck with easus either, but ended up using a gparted boot which worked great. Normally I would use recovery nandroid to backup the rom before installing the updated, but when I did that by booting into alternate, I ended up backing up the nook rom to the root partition, so I think the safest thing to do is to use win32diskmanager to image the entire sd card.

ylixir said:
You don't need to start over. Get a new uboot.bin for your cards boot partition from here.
Then get the clockwordmod kernel and ramdisk from the zip at the end of this post. Put the uImage and uRamdisk on the sd card as uAltImg and uAltRam.
Now when you choose sd:alternate from the boot menu it will boot you into clockwork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, just to make absolutely sure, if I already have CM7 installed on an SD card, which I've been using as a daily driver, installing apps, downloading Kindle books, PDFs, and the like, but I want to put CWMR onto the SD card, the steps you outlined should be OK?
NOTE: I know, I know, if I'm confused I probably shouldn't be screwing around with things...But the size-agnostic SD CM7 method was so bloodless that I thought the other stuff would be pretty easy to do. For whatever reason, adding stuff like the OC kernel and CWMR has been a little confusing.

[Q solved] cannot mount sdcard in recovery

So this was solved by using a tool from sdcard.org to format my sdcard in a PC. Once formatted with that tool cwm started seeing correctly.
-------
I'm running 3.1 rooted
I've flashed Thor's 1.4.2 recovery.
I have two sd cards: a 2g and an 8g.
Both work when accessed on a PC and on the iconia.
Neither work in cwm so I can't flash any roms.
I have tried formatting the sdcards on two different PCs. for the 2g I tried both fat and fat32. The 8g is fat32. In every case cwm says it can't mount it.
Additionally, I can't seem to use a USB key, although that may be that i don't know how to use it.
Thanks for any help.
-Bert

When in CWM and you go to install zip from sdcard do you see any folders where you choose the zip. Just wondering if it isn't mounted already. Physical sdcard is in /mnt/external_sd
and not /mnt/sdcard.

PsychosisNC said:
When in CWM and you go to install zip from sdcard do you see any folders where you choose the zip. Just wondering if it isn't mounted already. Physical sdcard is in /mnt/external_sd
and not /mnt/sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I'm prety sure It's not mounted already.
I'm attaching a screenshot to show the exact message I get when trying to browse for a zip. I get a similar message when I go to mounts and storage and try to mount the sdcard.

im bumping this because I'm really becoming concerned that the device is defective in some way.
I'm hoping that someone can give me some guidence on what I may be doing wrong.

So, brosell, did you figure out a solution? I have the exact same problem - cannot mount sdcard in recovery and I get the exact same message.
When the system is booted normally, the internal storage mounts ok as /sdcard
EDIT:
It seems CWM treats the external sdcard as /sdcard, not the internal storage. So, to flash an update, you need to place it on an external SD card

I always get that error, and I never had to mount anything using cwm, just booted it selected the zip to flash and flash. I still don't mount anything...?
And the zip goes on the external sd not the inturn

Can't format SC Card in Window. If won't mount.
Guys,
Unfortunately SD cards for Android must be formatted by Android. If the card is not properly formatted CWM can not mount it, nor can CWM format it. The best way to get it properly formatted is to put it into an Android Phone and use its format functions. There really is no way on the Icona Tab to reformat an improperly formatted card or a new formatted card. If you don't have an Android phone borrow a friends. You will know that it is properly formatted when you see a lost files folder created on the card by the Android phone formatting process. This is a common problem that many people encounter when performing their first ROM flash. If it was formatted under windows as FAT 32 you can access it and store on it in normal operation mode. But ClockWorkMod can not mount it in recovery mode. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Can mount SD card in Recovery
I should have also mentioned last night in my post here, that my experience has been that it is much easier to flash a new custom ROM from a USB thumb drive. Flashing a custom ROM from USB seems to be less problematic than from an SDCard that appears otherwise to be good and formatted with FAT32, but CWM can't mount it. You can fast format the thumb drive on Windows to clean it off. Then copy your custom .zip ROM to be flashed on to the thumb drive from within Windows then insert it into the USB port of your Icona Tab, boot into CWM recovery (I'm assuming you know how to do that so I won't go into it here.) I forget exactly where in the CWM menu it is, it might be under the CWM advanced sub-menu but it say's something to the effect of Install zip from USB. It always works for me with no problem. The advantage is that you do all your prep work on Windows and then flash from the thumb drive which I believe has an ISO standard across all platforms and usually comes already per-formatted. This is an alternative method if you can't get your SDCard properly formatted (see my previous post in this thread for how to get it properly formatted so that it will mount under CWM.) Again, good luck!

I want to cry!!
I tried re formatting! Nothing! Cmw is not on sd card! Nothing is working! Still stuck on acer start screen! Yes i am a noob! But i read alot into this stuff b4 i do it! I wish there was someone i can have come to my house and do this for me! I have tried everything!!!!!!!!!!! So frustrated!!! Someone pls help me!!!!

in CWM recovery, there are 2 options,sd and "internal sd" i think(for me atleast). i chose the internal sd and it mounts.

brosell said:
So this was solved by using a tool from sdcard.org to format my sdcard in a PC. Once formatted with that tool cwm started seeing correctly.
-------
-Bert
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You Sir! been looking for this fix for a long time

brosell said:
So this was solved by using a tool from sdcard.org to format my sdcard in a PC. Once formatted with that tool cwm started seeing correctly.
-------
/QUOTE]
thanks brosell, for the solution,
I have a 512MB SD card in the g5360, was FAT formatted. reformatting the sdcard with the tool from sdcard.org worked for me as well, afterwards it could be mounted by the stock recovery
and could install update.zip (prior to install CMW)
kr, Erik
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Can I have partitions that can be accessed from both NC Stock and CM7 on SD card?

Hi everyone!
I just got CM7 (latest stable release) installed on on external sdhc card. I have wifi issues with CM7 (and looking around the forums tells me that CM7 can be finicky with certain routers) so I would love to be able to use Nook's stock ROM (4.1.4) when I am having issues.
But, when I am on NC ROM, I don't see anything except the small boot partition on the SD and when I am on CM7, I don't get access to this boot partition. I am wondering if there is a way to either create another partition or make the currently existing partitions accessible on both ROMS so that I can share data between them.
I am a n00b without any Android experience so thanks in advance for your patient responses.

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Thanks ✟
Moving to Q&A

andrandom said:
Hi everyone!
I just got CM7 (latest stable release) installed on on external sdhc card. I have wifi issues with CM7 (and looking around the forums tells me that CM7 can be finicky with certain routers) so I would love to be able to use Nook's stock ROM (4.1.4) when I am having issues.
But, when I am on NC ROM, I don't see anything except the small boot partition on the SD and when I am on CM7, I don't get access to this boot partition. I am wondering if there is a way to either create another partition or make the currently existing partitions accessible on both ROMS so that I can share data between them.
I am a n00b without any Android experience so thanks in advance for your patient responses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in my signature for a link to my tips thread. I explain there how to make the SD media partition available to both ROMs (item B3).

leapinlar said:
Look in my signature for a link to my tips thread. I explain there how to make the SD media partition available to both ROMs (item B3).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*That's* the one I wanted to point them to.

leapinlar said:
Look in my signature for a link to my tips thread. I explain there how to make the SD media partition available to both ROMs (item B3).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
Do you mean step #3 in Section B? I could edit it without running your script too, can't I?

andrandom said:
Thanks.
Do you mean step #3 in Section B? I could edit it without running your script too, can't I?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If whatever you have on emmc is rooted, you can manually edit it. If you have unrooted stock, then you need to flash the zip since without root you cannot edit those files manually. And I did mean item B3. Each item is a different topic, they are not steps. One topic does not depend on another. Just do B3 and no others if you want.

Yes, item B3. My mistake...
I should be able to do flash the zip from my current CM7 SD card's boot partition, shouldn't I?
So I put the update-stockemmc-vold-fstab-modified-for-partition4.zip file in the boot partition of the SD card, rebooted to Recovery mode and then booted to NC's stock ROM. NC is still using the tiny boot partition on the SD card as my external storage instead of the much larger CM7 partition. This was the same partition that was under 'My Files / Memory card' before I flashed so nothing has changed. I did this twice to double-check.
Am I doing this wrong?

andrandom said:
Yes, item B3. My mistake...
I should be able to do flash the zip from my current CM7 SD card's boot partition, shouldn't I?
So I put the update-stockemmc-vold-fstab-modified-for-partition4.zip file in the boot partition of the SD card, rebooted to Recovery mode and then booted to NC's stock ROM. NC is still using the tiny boot partition on the SD card as my external storage instead of the much larger CM7 partition. This was the same partition that was under 'My Files / Memory card' before I flashed so nothing has changed. I did this twice to double-check.
Am I doing this wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are doing it wrong. You need to flash that file with a CWM card, not put in the boot partition of your SD. And since you did that, you need to re-flash your latest ROM on SD to correct your mistake. (I will edit my instructions to make it a little clearer that you use CWM to flash that file.)

I got NC stock ROM to see my SD card partition by following item A10. That is most excellent and thanks again!
Unfortunately, I no longer see the boot partition when I attach NC to my computer whether NC is running off stock ROM or CM7. My guess is that this is due to my failed attempt to flash from my CM7 SD card yesterday. Am I right?
I thought I could reverse that by copying the update-stockemmc-vold-fstab-return-to-stock.zip file to CM7's boot (and then booting to the recovery mode) but that seemed to have nothing.
If I understand your previous message correctly, I should re-do my entire SD card but... I have already spent a few hours downloading and customizing the Android apps. Is there a way to preserve all that before Win32diskimager destroys the contents of the SD card?
Is there a way to manually mount the /etc folder from a unix prompt and alter the file?
Does it even matter if I don't see boot while I attach NC to a computer? Are there any caveats to 'let it be'?
Questions, questions and more questions...
That leads me to the obvious question, is there a book that explains Android to someone who is not interested in programming it but wants to understand the architecture and design of the OS (and custom ROMs)?
Thanks for being patient with all these n00b questions.

andrandom said:
I got NC stock ROM to see my SD card partition by following item A10. That is most excellent and thanks again!
Unfortunately, I no longer see the boot partition when I attach NC to my computer whether NC is running off stock ROM or CM7. My guess is that this is due to my failed attempt to flash from my CM7 SD card yesterday. Am I right?
I thought I could reverse that by copying the update-stockemmc-vold-fstab-return-to-stock.zip file to CM7's boot (and then booting to the recovery mode) but that seemed to have nothing.
If I understand your previous message correctly, I should re-do my entire SD card but... I have already spent a few hours downloading and customizing the Android apps. Is there a way to preserve all that before Win32diskimager destroys the contents of the SD card?
Is there a way to manually mount the /etc folder from a unix prompt and alter the file?
Does it even matter if I don't see boot while I attach NC to a computer? Are there any caveats to 'let it be'?
Questions, questions and more questions...
That leads me to the obvious question, is there a book that explains Android to someone who is not interested in programming it but wants to understand the architecture and design of the OS (and custom ROMs)?
Thanks for being patient with all these n00b questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do not need or want to re-set up the whole SD installation. Just put the same CM7 zip file back in the boot partition and boot to SD recovery. It will put the correct vold.fstab back on the SD. You will not lose any settings or apps you have already set up. (And putting the return to stock zip there was also the wrong thing to do. The vold.fstab for stock and CM7 are different. But don't worry, it will fix that too.)
You are not supposed to see the boot partition on the PC when you plug the nook in with the cable. You are only supposed to see 'emmc' and 'sdcard'. Under the original setup, your stock system thought the boot partition was 'sdcard' and that was why you saw it on your PC. Since you modified stock to see partition 4 as 'sdcard', partition 4 is what the PC sees, not the boot partition.
Most people have to physically take the card out of the nook and put it in the PC to see the boot partition on the PC. If you don't want to do that, use my script in item B4. But since you are on CM7, you will not be adding many things to the boot partition to install with SD recovery in the future. So it is probably best to leave things be.
And I don't know of any books to help you.
Sent from my Nook Color running ICS and Tapatalk

That is excellent news!
A bit of playing around with Astro tells me that I was wrong about seeing the 'CM7 SDCARD' partition when I was on CM7 ROM. I am only seeing the boot. Anyway, I am going to flash the CM7 ROM again and I am hoping it would fix everything.
Also, yes, I can see the boot partition when I put the SD card directly on my computer but I was also able to see it when I hooked up the NC to my computer via USB before I did my unintended tweaks but... I'll survive.
I'll be back after I flash. (Famous last words??)

Mission accomplished!
Thanks again for all your help.

For future reference after you alter stock's fstab... all you have to do is:
mkdir /sdcard/boot (only have to do this one time)
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /sdcard/boot (do this every time you want to put something on the boot partition)
put anything you want on boot partition in /sdcard/boot

DizzyDen said:
For future reference after you alter stock's fstab... all you have to do is:
mkdir /sdcard/boot (only have to do this one time)
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /sdcard/boot (do this every time you want to put something on the boot partition)
put anything you want on boot partition in /sdcard/boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, there is one big advantage to using that method. I think it allows the boot partition to be seen not only on the nook, but also on the PC when you plug in the usb.

leapinlar said:
Yes, there is one big advantage to using that method. I think it allows the boot partition to be seen not only on the nook, but also on the PC when you plug in the usb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We could probably come up with a symlink to /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 to /sdcard/boot and avoid having to mount it everytime as well.

DizzyDen said:
We could probably come up with a symlink to /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 to /sdcard/boot and avoid having to mount it everytime as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you Dizz, your suggestion got me to thinking and I was able to come up with an init.d bash script that does the trick. I just temporarily mounted sdcard and created the sdcard/boot directory and the mounted the boot partition to it, then unmounted sdcard so it could be mounted again by the system later in the boot sequence.
The only problem is now sdcard will not mount on the PC using UMS mass storage. Must be because of having a second mount within the mount. But it does mount with MTP. But that may be acceptable. I will test some more, including using Goo Manager tomorrow.
EDIT (6-21): Goo Manager works. But I think I have figured out why sdcard is not mounting in UMS. Once it is mounted in my script and the boot partition mounted under it, it cannot be unmounted. And since it cannot be unmounted, it cannot be mounted later by the system as vold. If it cannot be mounted as vold, it does not show in UMS. For now I think I will leave it as I have it in Rev 2 of my script (symlinking to the root directory with full r/w permissions). If people want to see the boot partition on the PC, just use my modified for CM9 NookColorUMS available in my tips thread.
Sent from my Nook Color running ICS and Tapatalk

Help!
When CM7 is running, my computer is no longer mounting any of the partitions when I connect NC to my computer via the USB cable.
If the NC stock ROM is running, my computer mounts all three partitions (MyNook..., boot and CM7SDcard) but calibre is not recognizing the external partitions for transfers.
Further, when I boot to my NC stock ROM, I am no longer seeing my SD card's contents in the NC's library.
This may have something to do with the fact that NC stock ROM seemed to have updated itself to 4.1.3.
Should I re-run the scripts again or am I missing something else?

When it was updated to 1.4.3, you lost the emmc mods. Just re-flash my zip with the CWM SD. You may have lost CWM on emmc too.
On CM7, you have to select the turn on storage button after you plug it in. It is not automatic like stock. Pull up the notification area and touch the turn on button.

Darn, I forgot about that 'USB' option under notifications. Enabling it allows me to find the partitions. I will run your scripts again when I find a spare mUSB card.
Thanks again for your help!