Database Users

[How To] Swap the mounting points on ICS (CM9) for emmc and sdcard.

This is a quick tutorial I want to write up based on a recent experience I've had recently with my micro sd-card. (More info on that below)
This how to shows how to switch between the internal sd card and the external sd cards mounting points (so the external is accessed via /sdcard, and the internal is accessed through /eemc)
The nuts and bolts how to:
0. Perform backups on System, i am not responsible for any damages or boot loops.
1. Download root explorer (or any other file explorer with root privileges)
2. Go to /system/etc, and mount R/W
3. Long press on vold.fstab and select Open With... , select Text Editor
4. You will find a line with sdcard in it a few times, change this section:
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To:
dev_mount emmc /mnt/emmc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. Do the same thing with the emmc section:
dev_mount emmc /mnt/emmc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To:
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
6. But you just flipped the first section around? Yes I did, this changes the mounting points. But not the original location of where it is being mounted......
7. Please don't change anything else in this file....
8. Reboot, enjoy!
I had to do this hax because the current nightly of CM9 doesn't support there being no external sd card, and mine got corrupt (eep!), it then continued to mount the internal sd card location to emmc instead (wtf?). So i did this quick hax so i could take pictures with the stock camera and use several applications which just default to the internal sdcard (and doesn't allow changing that).
Hope that helps some random Googlers......
Note: This has only been tested on CM9 Nightly apr-9th on SGSII, but i see no reason for this not work across all ROMs and devices( with ICS, the emmc thing wasn't on GB and below i don't think) as long as you don't do anything as foolish as change more than the lines specified above.
An example of a swapped file is (DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THIS, YOU PROBABLY WONT BE ABLE TO BOOT):
# internal sdcard
dev_mount emmc /mnt/emmc 11 /devices/platform/dw_mmc/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0 encryptable_
# external sdcard
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/s3c-sdhci.2/mmc_host/mmc1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please note that the latest CM9 nightlies lets you do this from the system menu! This was written pre that advancement. This is for the curious and other ROMs/phones.

Is it possible to use something in the lines of:
dev_mount emmc /mnt/external_sd ? To just bind the external sd to the stock location?

If I understood your question right, that's the default behavior in CM7/9 so you don't need to change anything.
(internal gets mounted as /sdcard and external as /emmc. At least that's how it always behaved on my device -takes a bit of getting used to but it's manageable once you know the trick)
edit : aw sawry, mistook /mnt/external_sd for /mnt/sdcard. But it changes nothing besides the name of the mountpoint, easily adjustable.. Although why you would want to have it named like that is beyond me, it makes for more keys to hit when typing it... xD

Zewsan said:
Is it possible to use something in the lines of:
dev_mount emmc /mnt/external_sd ? To just bind the external sd to the stock location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same doubt raised here ...is it possible to mount external sdcard to /mnt/external_sd instead of mnt/emmc...???
please need solution

Zewsan said:
Is it possible to use something in the lines of:
dev_mount emmc /mnt/external_sd ? To just bind the external sd to the stock location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its the same technique....
So remember this:
Format: dev_mount <label> <mount_point> <part> <sysfs_path1...>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So <label> doesn't really matter, but we may as well keep it sane (and have it the same name as the mount point)! And <mount_point> is where its mounted. Make sure the folder exists first though! leave <part> and <sysfs_path*> alone and it will work correctly.
So if you were to create a folder /mnt/hammertime , then make a line look something like this (taken from my example in first post)
dev_mount hammertime /mnt/hammertime auto /devices/platform/s3c-sdhci.2/mmc_host/mmc1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will work correctly.
Hope that helps!

mattisdada said:
Its the same technique....
So remember this:
So <label> doesn't really matter, but we may as well keep it sane (and have it the same name as the mount point)! And <mount_point> is where its mounted. Make sure the folder exists first though! leave <part> and <sysfs_path*> alone and it will work correctly.
So if you were to create a folder /mnt/hammertime , then make a line look something like this (taken from my example in first post)
That will work correctly.
Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there no any requirement of changing build.prop file after doing this....?????

Ok I'll bite, late night tonight I'm going to flash back to AOKP....and give it a shot. It can't be that simple.....
Most certainly appreciate your effort...been looking for this for some time now.l!

HAvoktek said:
Ok I'll bite, late night tonight I'm going to flash back to AOKP....and give it a shot. It can't be that simple.....
Most certainly appreciate your effort...been looking for this for some time now.l!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't think so either, but i had the problem, hoped it was like its Linux cousin and searched for fstab, i found it. Swapped the mounting destinations around. And voila, done.....

Swapped but CWM Recovery still the same
Hi, first of all nice guide you did here.
Here's the thing: somehow somewhere by flashing nightlies i ended up
with /sdcard being treated as my external SD while /emmc was for internal.
So I wanted to fix that and using your guide although the other way around
I was able to make it as such: /sdcard = internal storage; /emmc = external storage.
ALL IS GOOD however when i booted to CWM recovery:
CWM still mounts my internal storage as /emmc.
SO in recovery internal storage = /emmc while when in CM9 internal storage = /sdcard
Is there anyway i can change CWM so that internal storage = /sdcard? to be more uniform and not confusing

jeromepaez said:
Hi, first of all nice guide you did here.
Here's the thing: somehow somewhere by flashing nightlies i ended up
with /sdcard being treated as my external SD while /emmc was for internal.
So I wanted to fix that and using your guide although the other way around
I was able to make it as such: /sdcard = internal storage; /emmc = external storage.
ALL IS GOOD however when i booted to CWM recovery:
CWM still mounts my internal storage as /emmc.
SO in recovery internal storage = /emmc while when in CM9 internal storage = /sdcard
Is there anyway i can change CWM so that internal storage = /sdcard? to be more uniform and not confusing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah CWM doesn't read the /system stuff, it has its own partition....
I've got no idea sorry, but its just a little inconvenient in CWM thats all.... But im sure you can check it out... Just search for fstab when you figure out how to explore the recovery partition (I've got no idea , short of modifying a flashable zip first and rekeying it.)

Forgot to post back with my results, Got HFS & AOKP to see the changes, however something broke when I did a PC mount. After playing with the lines "Experimentation" if you will, I ended up needing to rebuild my partitions! No fault of yours, I just wanted to see if I can have that functionality through the whole phones usage and features eg. mounting to the PC.
Thanks for the guide though, I'm seeing now that some devs are including the option to use the internal memory via a menu select, I wonder how there implementing that.

Probably something very similar but programmatically instead of the haxy file editing method I'm noting to use .
PC mounting is working as per normal for me here though...... (I don't have an external card right now so that may be a variable)

mattisdada said:
Probably something very similar but programmatically instead of the haxy file editing method I'm noting to use .
PC mounting is working as per normal for me here though...... (I don't have an external card right now so that may be a variable)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That it is, cause I can see my internal, but it doesn't mount the external.

Purpose
What is the purpose of this? Does it mount the EMMC so that the system thinks EMMC is actually an external sd card?
I am trying to figure out if there is a way to make the above mentioned happen. Or is there a way to re-partition it so that EMMC is used as system memory... or maybe even both? It seems that since ICS better integrates with on board memory, there would be a way to better integrate the internal memory of older devices with the system.

hfj00788 said:
What is the purpose of this? Does it mount the EMMC so that the system thinks EMMC is actually an external sd card?
I am trying to figure out if there is a way to make the above mentioned happen. Or is there a way to re-partition it so that EMMC is used as system memory... or maybe even both? It seems that since ICS better integrates with on board memory, there would be a way to better integrate the internal memory of older devices with the system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This guide shows you how to "flip" the points. Several ROMs have it differently preconfigured. But if this is your current situation:
Code:
Emmc: External SD Card
SDcard: Internal SD Card
It will make it:
Code:
Emmc: Internal SD Card
SDcard: External SD Card
And vice versa obviously (its a flip).
This guide will do what your wishing it to do.
The folders sdcard and emmc (or there /mnt varient more closely) are just soft links, meaning they don't really exist, but just point to another location. We can modify which folder they are linked to in the fstab.void file.

so to make emmc to external_sd i change "dev_mount emmc /mnt/external_sd"?

Worked great on a Captivate running AOKP-36 right after a wipe data/factory.

lol you need no guide on cm9
you can switch them in storage settings by a simple checkbox
its mentioned in team hacksung's FAQ

Im on CM9. Can someone post the code so i can just do a simple copy and paste? I wanna switch emmc to external_sd
(there is no storage settings simple checkbox for me)
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

bradman117 said:
Im on CM9. Can someone post the code so i can just do a simple copy and paste? I wanna switch emmc to external_sd
(there is no storage settings simple checkbox for me)
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never use a copy and paste for the file in this operation. You only need to modify partially two lines (which you can copy and paste from the OP).
Your just swapping two words around really. Its fairly easy, just follow the steps and it will work, it looks daunting at first if your not used to doing this sort of thing, but its fairly easy.

IDEA: Hacking internal/external sdcard mount paths

Hello.
I'm using the latest aurora and I'd like to discuss an idea I had.
Since the U8800 has plenty internal memory and it's quite fast comparing to an average sd card, it'd be great if we could use the internal memory for the tasks that need "speed" instead of "space".
Running apps from the sd card is the perfect example!
So the idea would be, while keeping the external sdcard mounted on /mnt/sdcard, having /mnt/sdcard/Android/data, for instance, point to the «internal sdcard path»/Android/data.
What do you think would be the best solution:
- hacking the mount points?
- using links?
- other solution?
Any developer or filesystem savvy user can point the advantages or dangers of using this solution?
- e.g.: the system or some apps may check if the external sd-card is mounted before trying to read/write to /mnt/sdcard/Android/data... that would mean the system/those apss may think that path isn't reachable with the ext-sdcard unmounted, altough they can be read.
Suggestions? Rants? Ideas?
Regards!

I have wondered if the /data/app or maybe the whole /data partition could be mounted in the internal storage partition. That would give 2gb space for apps and associated files instead of 3-400 ish and would mean no need to move apps to sd card which would mean faster loads at startup due to internal memory being faster.

VuDuCuRSe said:
Hello.
I'm using the latest aurora and I'd like to discuss an idea I had.
Since the U8800 has plenty internal memory and it's quite fast comparing to an average sd card, it'd be great if we could use the internal memory for the tasks that need "speed" instead of "space".
Running apps from the sd card is the perfect example!
So the idea would be, while keeping the external sdcard mounted on /mnt/sdcard, having /mnt/sdcard/Android/data, for instance, point to the «internal sdcard path»/Android/data.
What do you think would be the best solution:
- hacking the mount points?
- using links?
- other solution?
Any developer or filesystem savvy user can point the advantages or dangers of using this solution?
- e.g.: the system or some apps may check if the external sd-card is mounted before trying to read/write to /mnt/sdcard/Android/data... that would mean the system/those apss may think that path isn't reachable with the ext-sdcard unmounted, altough they can be read.
Suggestions? Rants? Ideas?
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is known for a while now . Quoted from my thread here:
vold.fstab - CHANGE THE DEFAULT SDCARD: -thanks to julle131
There is this file named vold.fstab at your /system/etc/ folder, which controls which of your sdcards (Internal/External) will be mounted when you connect your phone to the PC. The last 2 lines are the only that matter. These are the two possibilities:
EXTERNAL SDCARD MOUNTED (DEFAULT):
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.4/mmc_host
dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard1 14 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.2/mmc_host
INTERNAL SDCARD MOUNTED:
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard 14 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.2/mmc_host
dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard1 auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.4/mmc_host
change them as you wish with a root explorer or before flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make this change and every app will use the internal sdcard. Gallery works ok with images to external sdcard, it just might take a while for the first refresh. But I don't know if you'll notice any difference in terms of speed....
Cheers

spirosbond said:
Well this is known for a while now . Quoted from my thread here:
Make this change and every app will use the internal sdcard. Gallery works ok with images to external sdcard, it just might take a while for the first refresh. But I don't know if you'll notice any difference in terms of speed....
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not what he talked, I think. He said that the apparel would be installed on the external sd card, but the data would be moved to the internal one. And we have speed, but the main card would be the external one.
I think its a great idea if I understood it right!
Sent from my U8800 using xda premium

mrasquinho said:
That's not what he talked, I think. He said that the apparel would be installed on the external sd card, but the data would be moved to the internal one. And we have speed, but the main card would be the external one.
I think its a great idea if I understood it right!
Sent from my U8800 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I see! Sorry about that. As far as I know apps are not choosing were to put their data. They just say to the OS "I want these things to be at the sdcard" and the OS puts them at the correct place. So you can't "hack" the app to "see" at somewhere else. On the other hand the OS initialises on boot which card is the primary and which is the secondary. So my knowledge stops there and I can't imagine a way to make this separation between app data and the rest...
I hope for someone else's help!

PaulMilbank said:
I have wondered if the /data/app or maybe the whole /data partition could be mounted in the internal storage partition. That would give 2gb space for apps and associated files instead of 3-400 ish and would mean no need to move apps to sd card which would mean faster loads at startup due to internal memory being faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe this cannot be done, because I think that the mapping of the partitions and mounts comes from the bootloader, but there is already the solution of resizing the data partition using the space of internal storage.

PaulMilbank said:
I have wondered if the /data/app or maybe the whole /data partition could be mounted in the internal storage partition. That would give 2gb space for apps and associated files instead of 3-400 ish and would mean no need to move apps to sd card which would mean faster loads at startup due to internal memory being faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a great idea!
I almost don't use the so called "internal sd card", therefor I have 2GB of fast empty space being wasted.
Why not simply mounting the internal sd-card partition in the data folder and the data partition on the internal sd card folder?
I only use the internal sd card to hold ringtones and other small stuff that I need to be in accessible 100% of the time, so a few hundred MB are enough!
Me gusta!
Every ROM flashes it's own fstab, right?
So all we'd need to do would be, editing the fstab before flashing it.
-----------------
Regarding the my first idea... I don't think one can simply mount a path on another path. We'd need a "virtual" device pointing to /mnt/sdcard-internal/data/ then mount that virtual device on /mnt/sdcard-external/data/.
My knowledge of unix mount/filesystems is not much more than what's explained here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount
OK, just found this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/11079/mount-a-directory-to-look-like-a-drive
there is a FUSE filesystem named bindfs that probably does exactly what you want. For example the following:
bindfs -n /media/USB-HDD-01/ISO/ /home/johnc/ISO-images
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would result in ISO-images to show up as a mounted filesystem in the Places sidepanel in Nautilus. The -n is required because otherwise bindfs tries to use the allow_other FUSE option, which by default is not allowed for regular users (if you use bindfs in /etc/fstab this is not a problem).
The first directory you give is the existing one, the second directory you give is an empty directory under which the contents of the existing one will appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, bindfs depends on FUSE... and there's a port of fuse to android: https://github.com/seth-hg/fuse-android but looking at the README I get the feeling that it's not really working. The last step would be having a kernel with FUSE support... and regarding that, I have no idea, how easy it is to get a kernel like that for our U8800 :\

Finding such a solution to expand the DATA partition indirectly would be great!
I used to apply genokolar's custom partition method as "1.2G DATA + 1.46G INTERNAL SD" before, but i found out that it has some issues with Official 2.3 Roms. One of them -the most important IMHO- is the BOOTLOOP problem occurring in some specific situations!!!
See the details in my post here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=25853141&postcount=134
(Seems that I don't encounter the bootloops on Custom Roms, but i'm not %100 sure and never will be )
So i unfortunately gave up using it, and revert to the stock partition .
I will be grateful to the one who will find a better and reliable solution. Hope to see it soon...

I still have to gather more information on the official update "modus operandi".
My goal is to simply reformat both partitions and then swap their mount points.
If the official update formats the partitions before applying the flashing official ROM files, then partitioning changes shouldn't cause any failure on the official update.
But like I said, I'm still yet to confirm that info.
Gen's idea was great (I learned a lot just by looking at his scripts) but resizing partitions has its dangers.
Since "no one" really uses the internal memory, why not simply exchange its room with /data, right?

This would be awesome! I would love to have 2gb for apps, instead of cluttering my phone.. plus the 2gb of internal storage are just a waste for me.. I never use them.. so this would be great!

[Q] HTC HD2 EXT3 partition not being recognized

Hi,
I just installed miui 6.9.29. Everything is working fine but one thing: the ext3 partition i created in CWM (512 mb, 0 mb swap) does not show up as internal storage. I tried to mount it in CWM, but still no luck . Can someone please help me? I really need more than 115 mb of internal storage, since there is only 23.54 mb available. Pretty stupid actually because i only want about 3-4 apps more..
Please help!

1 - does that rom support a2sd natively? or do you need to apply a script yourself?
2 - it never does show up using the standard system apps to view available storage

yes it does, and i already fixed it by using this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=26286781&postcount=1
thank you anyways

Ahh it must depend on the rom / script used then.

Fix broken internal storage on GT-I9000M (/dev/block/mmcblk0 corrupted)

I bypassed dead internal memory on a GT-I9000M.
Symptoms:
- Your GT-I9000M is not booting or bootlooping no matter what firmware you are flashing it with.
- In recovery, you are seeing I/O errors on /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
- Trying to repartition and format the internal storage with fdisk or parted and mkfs.whatever fails.
To recover:
- Partition and format your 16GB+ external microSD with at least two primary partitions, vfat on the first one and rfs (or whatever fs is supported by your firmware) on the second one.
- Acquire a stock ROM, in my case I used JL2
- untar the PDA portion of your ROM of choice (you want zImage and factoryfs.rfs)
- Extract initramfs from zImage ( https://github.com/mistadman/Extract-Kernel-Initramfs )
- grep for /dev/block/mmcblk, there should be 4 .rc files containing references to it as well as within the binary file /init.
- use a text editor to replace all occurances of "mmcblk0" with "mmcblk1" (and vice-versa if you feel so inclined) in the .rc files.
- use a hex editor to replace "mmcblk0" with "mmcblk1" in /init.
- create cpio archive of your modified initramfs with `find . | cpio -H newc -o > ../initramfs.img`
- repack kernel and initramfs ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=789712 ), you should have a new_zImage now.
- Mount the factoryfs.rfs as a loop `mount -o loop,rw -t vfat factoryfs.rfs /mnt/loop`
- Modify vold.fstab - this topic is well covered elsewhere (swap sdcard and sdcard1, swap mount points), then umount your loop
- Flash factoryfs.rfs and zImage using your favorite method.
That's it! Your phone will now boot and complain forevermore that the external memory is corrupt. ToDo: use third partition on external microSD as external_sd...

To recap:
We're telling android's init and whatever .rc scripts contain references to the broken partitions on the internal storage /dev/block/mmcblk0 to point to an appropriate partition on the external microSD card /dev/block/mmcblk1. You can actually do anything you want with the partition structure as long as it's consistent throughout init and in vold.fstab. Different ROMs do it differently.
I am not responsible for misuse of your hex editor, lack of backups, etc. I highly recommend the unbrickable mod.

Corrupt internal storage
Hi b0nafide,
My internal storage is also corrupted (i9000). I'm getting the same errors you descripe in your post. I'm trying your solution in wich you install android on your external SD. I bought a 8GB cat10 SD card....
But I'm stuck at the step: 'Extract initramfs from zImage ( [//github.com/mistadman/Extract-Kernel-Initramfs] )'. When I start the script nothing happens, except for my terminal closing. I'm using a virtualy installed Ubuntu distribution (Backtrack 5).
Do you have a tip? Perhaps you can help me through Teamviewer???
Hope do hear from you... I want to use my phone again
Greatings, Eldoro

My sgs is dead.
Please b0nafide, can you upload this modificated kernel (zImage and factoryfs.rfs) just for noobs like me?

Yes that woud be great. ..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Here also an i9000 with reboot
Have done allot, stock rom, other pit files...
Is there a way to do this with a i9000 ?
and yes an image for us ?
and is the phone then normale... or is the internal storage still broken ?
Thanxs

Anyone can help us?

grimorct said:
Anyone can help us?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
???

Anyone with working solution for this on i9000? I'll try to pack JW4 following this guide

grozni said:
Anyone with working solution for this on i9000? I'll try to pack JW4 following this guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yesterday, I made a flasheable pack of JW4, but it doesn't run. Now i'ḿ trying to modify JVU, but a strange thing happen when i'm repacking zImage...the script spends a lot of time in order to make it, and i can't be able to verify the correct pocess of new_zImage.
It's my first post in XDA, because normally I use HTCMANIA... I'm Spanish...and my English it isn't so good. Even, I should said that it isn't my phone...i'm repairing a friend's phone, so it's difficult for me to explain or speak about different ROMs or kernels....sorry
It's very important to advice that the scripts posted should be modified to get it run...because I found different problems to execute on Ubuntu.
Now it's 1:30 am...i'm trying "ext_JVU"....tomorrow i'll tell you the results.
Anyway i'll try to upload it, to reach different conclusions...

sesetxu said:
Anyway i'll try to upload it, to reach different conclusions...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please do, I'll try flashing immediately and get back with results. How did you format external sd card?

I'm willing to try aswell... almost gave up hope.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Hello friends!!!
I've the CODE (PDA file in ODIN) modified to execute android in ext-sdcard.
I do it as the first post said....but it doesn't run for me...
Anyway here is...Yo must get the MODEM and CSC os the stock firmware
XDA block the urls for me...for this reason its haven´t the WWW ...
Stock firmware..only to get MODEM and CSC: 4shared.com/zip/W1NeYAPA/I9000XXJVU_I9000OXAJVU_OXA.html?
Code modified to run in sdcard external: rapidshare.com/files/3786190721/ext_XXJVU.tar.md5
To solve my problems, i'll try to generate an CWMfile flasheable to try it...but now i'm hopeless....
Good luck men!!

sesetxu said:
Good luck men!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great work men!! It works for me. After flashing I got error in picture I posted (same error as before when writing to internal storage with stock rom). I just hit reboot but honestly I was not thinking it will boot. Thing I noticed when I start camera I get message turn off usb storage first. My files app shows no sd card inserted. How did you format your sd card? I'm using 8gb class 6 sd card

grozni said:
Great work men!! It works for me. After flashing I got error in picture I posted (same error as before when writing to internal storage with stock rom). I just hit reboot but honestly I was not thinking it will boot. Thing I noticed when I start camera I get message turn off usb storage first. My files app shows no sd card inserted. How did you format your sd card? I'm using 8gb class 6 sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've modified all to use an sdcard with the folowing partitions:
1st primary fat32 which is internal sd card (4 gb)
2nd primary reiserfs which is /data (2 gb)
3rd primary fat 32 as external sd card
Try it...and I am happy to help you

sesetxu said:
I've modified all to use an sdcard with the folowing partitions:
1st primary fat32 which is internal sd card (4 gb)
2nd primary reiserfs which is /data (2 gb)
3rd primary fat 32 as external sd card
Try it...and I am happy to help you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try this layout. At first I prepared sdcard with 2 partitions which currently boot into Android but storage isn't working:
1st primary fat32 (6gb)
2nd primary ext4 (2gb)
You said raiserfs, should be that rfs type partition?
Update: I just noticed that both partition on my sdcard are fat32. First partition which should be internal storage I had to format again (not sure why). After this internal storage is still not available when in Android. I guess some mounting point is not good. Second fat32 partition is where the data is I guess (picture attached)

Exactly the same result as grozni. Same errors upon installing but booting into android. Amazing work! Also formatted 2 partitions. WiFi also not working btw. Hangs on obtaining ip...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

eldoro said:
Hangs on obtaining ip...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here

Is imposible to start Andoird without a rfs partition to mount /data (or ext4, for ROMs wich has fixed the troubles with ext4/rfs file systems...)
I can´t start the phone, because i get an added problem (my system can't format rfs data..but i don't know why)
I'm going to review the file /system/etc/vold.fstab who manages the mount points of the internal and external storages.
If anyone gets the correct configuration...please post it..
Tomorrow is Monday...and although I'm Spanish, I have a job (****ing crisis)...and i haven't so much time as weekend
Edit: wifi sockets are created over /data partition, if there is any problem in this partition is probably to get troubles obtaining IP

sesetxu said:
Is imposible to start Andoird without a rfs partition to mount /data (or ext4, for ROMs wich has fixed the troubles with ext4/rfs file systems...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I understand correctly samsung rfs and reiserfs are not the same thing? Why you use raiserfs on sdcard layout?
sesetxu said:
Edit: wifi sockets are created over /data partition, if there is any problem in this partition is probably to get troubles obtaining IP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is the reason
Update: One more thing I forgot to mention. When I try to format USB storage (internal sd) I get message sd card removed

TWRP 2.6.3.0 unable to mount esternal SDcard

[SOLVED: See last post]​
Hi everybody !
That's aLL... I just flashed a SBF, performed a factory reset from motorola's recovery, rooted my phone, installed 2ndinit 2.3, flashed TWRP 2.6.3.0 and then Quark's 2014 01 20 CM11 build.
Did I miss some step in order to get the card mounted in recovery ?
By the way I can easily access it plugging the USB cable on my Ubuntu Linux desktop and choosing MTP/PTP/USBstorage.
EDIT: it was previously formatted ( it's a 32GB class 10 U1 card ) as a fat32 partition on Windows7

Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
Hi everybody !
That's aLL... I just flashed a SBF, performed a factory reset from motorola's recovery, rooted my phone, installed 2ndinit 2.3, flashed TWRP 2.6.3.0 and then Quark's 2014 01 20 CM11 build.
Did I miss some step in order to get the card mounted in recovery ?
By the way I can easily access it plugging the USB cable on my Ubuntu Linux desktop and choosing MTP/PTP/USBstorage.
EDIT: it was previously formatted ( it's a 32GB class 10 U1 card ) as a fat32 partition on Windows7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your SDcard is visible from file manager?
If not than is better to format it in a ... compact camera or something like this.!

pgreed said:
Your SDcard is visible from file manager?
If not than is better to format it in a ... compact camera or something like this.!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer !
Yes it is; I can mount it on my desktop too as I previously said.
This happened to me 2 times after having installed Quarx's CM11 with the steps described before
Plugging it on my desktop results in a mounted partition on the file explorer ( nautilus ) but as an unmounted on the partitioning app ( Gparted ) with a broken filesystem but I am able to copy files

Bump!

Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
Bump!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said before something similar happened to me and the only solution was to re-format entire SDcard in a compact camera. I tried to format in a android tablet and in the phone but always it gave errors. After formatted in camera all work fine and no error.

pgreed said:
As I said before something similar happened to me and the only solution was to re-format entire SDcard in a compact camera. I tried to format in a android tablet and in the phone but always it gave errors. After formatted in camera all work fine and no error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should try but ... uhm ... my question is: why does the same card mount ever on every recovery ( TWRP 2.6.3.0 included ) but not any more after 2014 01 20 build ?
If I would restart from scratch without doing anything on the card( flashing a SBF, root, 2ndinit, TWRP 2.6.3.0, CM11 ) it should be mounted until the first CM11's boot: I did it 2 days ago. I just used the same card without formatting it: TWRP 2.6.3.0 does mount it only on the first shoot.
After the first CM11's boot it won't be mounted anymore.
sudo fdisk -l
Code:
Disk /dev/sdc: 32.1 GB, 32090619904 bytes
64 testine, 32 settori/tracce, 30604 cilindri, totale 62676992 settori
Unità = settori di 1 * 512 = 512 byte
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Identificativo disco: 0x70707573
Questa non sembra una tabella delle partizioni.
Probabilmente è stato scelto il dispositivo sbagliato.
Dispositivo Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 ? 1701998450 3638285201 968143376 d Sconosciuto
/dev/sdc2 ? 1701995885 2246105740 272054928 a OS/2 Boot Manager
/dev/sdc3 ? 1769087090 3538458322 884685616+ 6f Sconosciuto
/dev/sdc4 ? 2885681152 2885734849 26849 a OS/2 Boot Manager
dmesg|tail
Code:
[16595.451780] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[16595.451862] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[16595.451871] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[16595.466630] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[16595.466647] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[16595.469344] sdc:
[16595.472449] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[16595.472461] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[16595.472471] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[16595.775667] FAT-fs (sdc): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
Oh LoL: it mounts flawlessy and really on the fly and I can manage aLL files!
sudo dosfsck -w -r -l -a -v -t /dev/sdc
Code:
dosfsck 3.0.16 (01 Mar 2013)
dosfsck 3.0.16, 01 Mar 2013, FAT32, LFN
Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
Automaticaly removing dirty bit.
Boot sector contents:
System ID "MSDOS5.0"
Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
512 bytes per logical sector
65536 bytes per cluster
540 reserved sectors
First FAT starts at byte 276480 (sector 540)
2 FATs, 32 bit entries
1958912 bytes per FAT (= 3826 sectors)
Root directory start at cluster 2 (arbitrary size)
Data area starts at byte 4194304 (sector 8192)
489600 data clusters (32086425600 bytes)
63 sectors/track, 255 heads
0 hidden sectors
62676992 sectors total
...
...
...
Checking for bad clusters.
Reclaiming unconnected clusters.
Checking free cluster summary.
Performing changes.
/dev/sdc: 3703 files, 238236/489600 clusters
0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
Automaticaly removing dirty bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
uhm ... I'm just writing zeros to the entire drive:
Code:
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc
Let's see if it helps

SOLVED​
Okka roLLa !
So... trying to reformat the card via CM11 results in a random reboot; trying to wipe it on TWRP fails too.
I wrote zeros another 2 times in between and than i putted it into the defy, mounted it as USB Mass Storage in order to partition it with GParted creating 2 primary partitions ( 1024GB ext3 and aLL the other avaiable space FAT32 ) and now it is seen from recovery without mounting it :good:

I have the same problem: after installing any of the recent CM11 nightlies (since the autobot builds began), TWRP is unable to mount my sdcard. (It's a 16GB class 10 made by Topram.) I've tried fully formatting the card in my PC (as FAT32), also checked it for errors and bad sectors. So far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with the card.
Earlier versions of CM11 (from pre-autobot builds, like the December 29th build) have no trouble mounting the card in recovery, and the latest builds of CM11 have no trouble reading from and writing to the card when the rom is fully booted; only TWRP is unable to mount it. Strangely, TWRP has no trouble mounting an older and slower 2GB card.
@Alka-Seltzer PLUS, I'd rather not use the workaround that you described above, because the last time I tried screwing around in TWRP trying to get it to mount the sdcard, I ended up hard-bricking my old defy.
So, does anyone know whether it is possible to replace the recovery in the latest nightlies with a recovery from an earlier build? I'm not sure exactly what files I'd need to replace in the CM11 zip file, or whether a simple replacement would even work. I tried taking what I thought were the correct files from the December 29th build and flashing them over the February 22 nightly, but that just soft-bricked the phone and I had to start over from sbf.

Proverbs2 said:
I have the same problem: after installing any of the recent CM11 nightlies (since the autobot builds began), TWRP is unable to mount my sdcard. (It's a 16GB class 10 made by Topram.) I've tried fully formatting the card in my PC (as FAT32), also checked it for errors and bad sectors. So far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with the card.
Earlier versions of CM11 (from pre-autobot builds, like the December 29th build) have no trouble mounting the card in recovery, and the latest builds of CM11 have no trouble reading from and writing to the card when the rom is fully booted; only TWRP is unable to mount it. Strangely, TWRP has no trouble mounting an older and slower 2GB card.
@Alka-Seltzer PLUS, I'd rather not use the workaround that you described above, because the last time I tried screwing around in TWRP trying to get it to mount the sdcard, I ended up hard-bricking my old defy.
So, does anyone know whether it is possible to replace the recovery in the latest nightlies with a recovery from an earlier build? I'm not sure exactly what files I'd need to replace in the CM11 zip file, or whether a simple replacement would even work. I tried taking what I thought were the correct files from the December 29th build and flashing them over the February 22 nightly, but that just soft-bricked the phone and I had to start over from sbf.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe there's a misunderstandig: the steps i described have been done with the microSD outside the phone; I did it with the card inserted in an adapter !

Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
Maybe there's a misunderstandig: the steps i described have been done with the microSD outside the phone; I did it with the card inserted in an adapter !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I'm still not sure that I understand your steps. Did you use gparted on your linux PC to create an ext3 partition and a FAT32 partition on the sdcard, then put the sdcard back into the phone and now TWRP recognizes it? If so, which partition does TWRP recognize, the ext3 or the FAT32?
In any case, I'd rather not resort to such a workaround, since I don't trust the latest version of the TWRP recovery (which hard-bricked my old defy). I would prefer to downgrade the recovery to the version that was working fine on the earlier CM11 builds (e.g. the December 29th build). Does anyone know how to do that?
Thanks in advance!

That's right: I did use gparted on my linux PC to create an ext3 partition and a FAT32 partition on the sdcard, then putted the sdcard back into the phone and now TWRP does recognize it.
The FAT32 is recognized, the ext3 i do not know because i did not look for it yet ^_^

Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
That's right: I did use gparted on my linux PC to create an ext3 partition and a FAT32 partition on the sdcard, then putted the sdcard back into the phone and now TWRP does recognize it.
The FAT32 is recognized, the ext3 i do not know because i did not look for it yet ^_^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that actually worked! I just used gparted to fix the partition table and reformat the entire sdcard as FAT32 (I only created one partition), and now the card is recognized in TWRP! :good:
Apparently there was something wrong with the partition tables on my sdcard, and even a full format in Windows 7 didn't fix it, nor did the Windows disk check utility detect the problem, but Linux saves the day again!

Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
I should try but ... uhm ... my question is: why does the same card mount ever on every recovery ( TWRP 2.6.3.0 included ) but not any more after 2014 01 20 build ?
If I would restart from scratch without doing anything on the card( flashing a SBF, root, 2ndinit, TWRP 2.6.3.0, CM11 ) it should be mounted until the first CM11's boot: I did it 2 days ago. I just used the same card without formatting it: TWRP 2.6.3.0 does mount it only on the first shoot.
After the first CM11's boot it won't be mounted anymore.
sudo fdisk -l
Code:
Disk /dev/sdc: 32.1 GB, 32090619904 bytes
64 testine, 32 settori/tracce, 30604 cilindri, totale 62676992 settori
Unità = settori di 1 * 512 = 512 byte
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Identificativo disco: 0x70707573
Questa non sembra una tabella delle partizioni.
Probabilmente è stato scelto il dispositivo sbagliato.
Dispositivo Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 ? 1701998450 3638285201 968143376 d Sconosciuto
/dev/sdc2 ? 1701995885 2246105740 272054928 a OS/2 Boot Manager
/dev/sdc3 ? 1769087090 3538458322 884685616+ 6f Sconosciuto
/dev/sdc4 ? 2885681152 2885734849 26849 a OS/2 Boot Manager
dmesg|tail
Code:
[16595.451780] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[16595.451862] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[16595.451871] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[16595.466630] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[16595.466647] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[16595.469344] sdc:
[16595.472449] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[16595.472461] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[16595.472471] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[16595.775667] FAT-fs (sdc): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
Oh LoL: it mounts flawlessy and really on the fly and I can manage aLL files!
sudo dosfsck -w -r -l -a -v -t /dev/sdc
Code:
dosfsck 3.0.16 (01 Mar 2013)
dosfsck 3.0.16, 01 Mar 2013, FAT32, LFN
Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
Automaticaly removing dirty bit.
Boot sector contents:
System ID "MSDOS5.0"
Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
512 bytes per logical sector
65536 bytes per cluster
540 reserved sectors
First FAT starts at byte 276480 (sector 540)
2 FATs, 32 bit entries
1958912 bytes per FAT (= 3826 sectors)
Root directory start at cluster 2 (arbitrary size)
Data area starts at byte 4194304 (sector 8192)
489600 data clusters (32086425600 bytes)
63 sectors/track, 255 heads
0 hidden sectors
62676992 sectors total
...
...
...
Checking for bad clusters.
Reclaiming unconnected clusters.
Checking free cluster summary.
Performing changes.
/dev/sdc: 3703 files, 238236/489600 clusters
uhm ... I'm just writing zeros to the entire drive:
Code:
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc
Let's see if it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem here is that there is no partition table on your card, just a file system; you put a file system directly on the sd card, rather than creating a single partition spanning all of the card. Your file system would end up on /dev/block/mmcblk0 rather than /dev/block/mmcblk0p1, and twrp.fstab doesn't include an entry for that, so it doesn't get mounted.
This might be easy to fix, but testing the fix might also hard-brick the phone in question, as Proverbs2 discovered. It doesn't seem to be a hardware issue, and the overwhelming standard is for SD cards to have a partition table, so we're probably best off warning about such cards and not touching them at all. Whatever software you used to format your SD card initially needs to be fixed, though.

Proverbs2 said:
So, does anyone know whether it is possible to replace the recovery in the latest nightlies with a recovery from an earlier build? I'm not sure exactly what files I'd need to replace in the CM11 zip file, or whether a simple replacement would even work. I tried taking what I thought were the correct files from the December 29th build and flashing them over the February 22 nightly, but that just soft-bricked the phone and I had to start over from sbf.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there was a recent change to use separate kernels for recovery and normal 2nd-boot. You'd need to replace /system/bootmenu/2nd-boot/ramdisk-recovery with the old /system/bootmenu/2nd-boot/ramdisk-recovery and /system/bootmenu/2nd-boot/zImage-recovery with the old /system/bootmenu/2nd-boot/zImage (no "-recovery" suffix), I think, and I'd expect it to just work then. Don't touch the new /system/bootmenu/2nd-boot/ramdisk and /system/bootmenu/2nd-boot/zImage.

[PROBLEM SOLVED Time ago]
PhilipCetero said:
I think the problem here is that there is no partition table on your card, just a file system; you put a file system directly on the sd card, rather than creating a single partition spanning all of the card. Your file system would end up on /dev/block/mmcblk0 rather than /dev/block/mmcblk0p1, and twrp.fstab doesn't include an entry for that, so it doesn't get mounted.
This might be easy to fix, but testing the fix might also hard-brick the phone in question, as Proverbs2 discovered. It doesn't seem to be a hardware issue, and the overwhelming standard is for SD cards to have a partition table, so we're probably best off warning about such cards and not touching them at all. Whatever software you used to format your SD card initially needs to be fixed, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
SOLVED​
Okka roLLa !
So... trying to reformat the card via CM11 results in a random reboot; trying to wipe it on TWRP fails too.
I wrote zeros another 2 times in between and than i putted it into the defy, mounted it as USB Mass Storage in order to partition it with GParted creating 2 primary partitions ( 1024GB ext3 and aLL the other avaiable space FAT32 ) and now it is seen from recovery without mounting it :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer but I do not realize what was wrong doing it my way ( now the card gets mounted ) !
After having write zeros on the card i tried to partition it in 3 different ways:
1) Booting up CM11 and letting it ask to format the empty card ( I thought it was supposed to create a partition table with a FAT32 partition spanning all the space on the microSD ) but it always resulted in a random reboot and a not partitioned card.
2) Entering TWRP and letting it partition the SDcard using its menu: it returns that the recovery tries to mount any partition which is supposed to be created from an empty card Maybe the card should have had at least a partition table in order to be partitioned ? This question let go to this another one: isn't TWRP able to write a partition table on an empty microSD ?
3) My way: using Gparted whom prompts a window which says to create a partition table before partitioning the device.

Alka-Seltzer PLUS said:
Thanks for your answer but I do not realize what was wrong doing it my way ( now the card gets mounted ) !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's nothing wrong with your way! I just thought an explanation of what went wrong would be helpful. To actually fix it, gparted is what I would use, too; and now you've used it everything should work flawlessly
Sorry for the confusion: I was talking about fixing TWRP to recognize such cards (which it should) and working with them (which it shouldn't, because of the risk it's a broken card and we end up Proverbsing the phone).

is there any new solution?
or can i mount(in twrp) /dev/block/mmcblk0 sdcard
and install my new rom and do away