[Q] EXT on Internal SD Card - Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I need to use symbolic links and UNIX permissions on some of the sub-directories under my main directory (/storage/emulated/0/). I have C4Droid and GCC installed, and I want to be able to compile and execute apps through a terminal emulator. I can compile just fine inside the app and export, but I cannot run the exported binaries. After tearing apart the internet in searching why, it appears that the internal SD card is FAT and not EXT4 (or 3).
I don't care if I have to delete my files or if I will need to reinstall apps or whatever, I have backups and root, but I don't want to trip KNOX.
So how does one go about to format this? Other threads indicate that plugging into a computer and formatting will not work since it will be reformatted on the next boot. Android has native EXT support, so surely this can't be impossible...

Related

Corrupted SD Card

I'm running CM 4.1.11.1 I think and just recently new apps wouldn't install, so I rebooted and all of a sudden all of the apps just turned into the standard icon and none of them said they were installed except for like 3 or 4 of them. I think the SD card is alright, but must have some kind of error in the ext filesystem as I can see all of the files on the FAT32 portion just fine. Do you guys know of any way to just fix the errors on the ext portion without reformatting it? Or do I have to kill all of the partitions and redo them?
You could use the repair ext filesystem option if you are running a recovery image that has it (Cyanogen 1.4 or RA 1.2.3) or just reformat the ext partition using gparted under linux.
Yeah, the repair ext thing didn't work. I think I may just have to clear off the entire card and start from scratch.
I got the same problem
then I backup all the apps up with: tar cvf /sdcard/backup.tar /data/app/*
then copy backup.tar to your desktop pc
then reformat your tf card and repart the partitions
when it's done,move it to your tf card FAT32 partition again
insert to your Phone
the install CM ROM
when it's done
enter the terminal or adb shell
cd /data/app
tar xvf /sdcard/backup.tar
(if it says read only filesystem something you can try reboot )
then check to make sure all the .apk files are under the /data/app directory
then type
fix_permissions
when it's all done reboot
if some apps' error
reinstall them
that's all I did
good luck to you ;-)
oh,I suggest that the size of your ext3 partition should under 400MB
that't the key to solve the problem I thought

Partitioning microSD card

After setting up my wife's A7 and using it for three weeks, I have decided to open mine up. I waited because I wanted to see if CES had anything I wanted more. I decided they didn't.
So, I am starting from scratch again.
The main issue I've had with my wife's A7 has been the lack of storage space for apps, especially the big games.
Bazbob seems to have a solution by partioning the microSD card and using Apps2sd.
I took a new Class 10 16GB microSD card.
I downloaded and burned Ubuntu onto a CD from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
Put the card in my laptop, restarted it into Ubuntu.
Ran gparted.
Shrunk the Fat32 partition to just under 8GB and added another partion as ext2 primary.
When I restarted my laptop, my sd reader in the laptop doesn't work.
When I put it into the A7, it says the SD card has Total Space of 7.73GB.
At this point, I'm not sure what to do next.
Help is appreciated!
jazzbone said:
After setting up my wife's A7 and using it for three weeks, I have decided to open mine up. I waited because I wanted to see if CES had anything I wanted more. I decided they didn't.
So, I am starting from scratch again.
The main issue I've had with my wife's A7 has been the lack of storage space for apps, especially the big games.
Bazbob seems to have a solution by partioning the microSD card and using Apps2sd.
I took a new Class 10 16GB microSD card.
I downloaded and burned Ubuntu onto a CD from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
Put the card in my laptop, restarted it into Ubuntu.
Ran gparted.
Shrunk the Fat32 partition to just under 8GB and added another partion as ext2 primary.
When I restarted my laptop, my sd reader in the laptop doesn't work.
When I put it into the A7, it says the SD card has Total Space of 7.73GB.
At this point, I'm not sure what to do next.
Help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You needed to make a second partition EXT2 and format it. You then need to mount the partition. I did this by using the install-recovery.sh that it located in /system/etc. I used the following tutorial and it worked. I got over 12gb of space to install apps.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=832799
I did try to mount the new partition to /storage which is also /sdcard and i was still not able to use titanium backup to move apps. The only way i have alot of space is use this method.
I'm also mounting the fat32 partition to location /storage so that when i download apps thats where they are stored until you install them. Also Titanium backup dumps the backups here. This is done with a custom mod of Dexters 1.0c mod.
I did not use adb, i used a app called quicksshd which allows you secure ftp into the tablet and make changes. I suggest using a windows programs called winscp and putty.
Thanks for replying rfisher.
Turns out that my laptop lost the drive letter for the sd card. That's fixed now. When I insert the card into my laptop, it says that you need to format the card in the drive to use it. Any idea why?
I am confused by your instructions.
You said
You needed to make a second partition EXT2 and format it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that. First partition is FAT 32, and second partition is EXT2, primary.
Maybe I didn't format the partition? I just created it.
I'll install busybox and see how far I can get with it.
With the other A7, I was never able to work with ADB.
This device really makes me feel like an idiot.
Still can't believe I was the first to get Google Apps working on my wife's tablet!
no adb
Well, the hours of frustration have returned...
I can't get adb running on my laptop.
I installed Android SDK.
When I type adb in the cmd window on my laptop, I get
"adb" is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"
I have tried moving the ADK folder to c:\
and
to:
C:\Users\Bucks HP
No luck.
I added the path c:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
to the environment variables in my system properties.
My head is going to explode!
Well, I got adb working, I think...
Problem was in the cmd window. I had to change the path.
Now, I can't install busybox. I followed the instructions from the wiki.
When I type "adb push busybox /data/local"
it returns: cannot stat 'busybox' : no such file or directory.
I pasted the busybox file in the
C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
folder.
Was that the right place for it?
Is the busybox file just a text file?
Also, mine is named busybox-armv6l
Should it be renamed? I tried "adb push busybox-armv6l /data/local"
and got the same result...
I gave up on installing busybox via the wiki instructions.
I installed Titanium Backup and installed busybox through it.
Now, when I type: cd /system
mkdir sd
I get :
mkdir failed for sd, read-only file system
What does that mean and how do I fix it?
Thanks
The saga continues...
With the busybox from Titanium Backup installed,
I needed to type:
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk3p1 /system
exit
exit
Then, following the tutorial, I am up to step 12:
12) Now comes the tricky part: making Android mount your new partition at boot time. All the hard work would be useless if Android discarded the mount points every time we restarted our phones. To do this we’ll need to create 2 scripts and store then into /system/etc. Obviously the scripts should be started by init.rc and need to run as root. Fortunately Android’s init.rc have a gap that makes this possible. The scripts are named install-recovery.sh and init-sd2.sh.
My question is: How do you create scripts?
You would create them with notepad++ which is a windows program. Then using adb push them to the /system/etc directory.
I used a app called quicksshd and a windows program called winscp to copy the files to the directory. If you used my method you first need to make the /system directory rw before it will let you copy the files. It worked for me, the only thing i did differently is edit init.rc to mount the first partition of the sd card to /storage, but this was creating a modded 1.0c rom. So the result is about 4gb for my sd memory and 12gb for installing apps.
jazzbone said:
The saga continues...
With the busybox from Titanium Backup installed,
I needed to type:
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk3p1 /system
exit
exit
Then, following the tutorial, I am up to step 12:
12) Now comes the tricky part: making Android mount your new partition at boot time. All the hard work would be useless if Android discarded the mount points every time we restarted our phones. To do this we’ll need to create 2 scripts and store then into /system/etc. Obviously the scripts should be started by init.rc and need to run as root. Fortunately Android’s init.rc have a gap that makes this possible. The scripts are named install-recovery.sh and init-sd2.sh.
My question is: How do you create scripts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi rfisher
Thanks for replying!
While waiting, I opened Notepad++, copied the text in the tutorial window into it and saved the file as Unix.
Then, I copied it to a USB drive, put it in the A7, and copied to the system/etc folder.
Is that acceptable?
Then, I followed steps 13-15.
I think I did something wrong. I am not seeing it in Root Explorer. What should I be looking for?
Was I supposed to install Apps2SD already?
I got winscp and quicksshd working. YEAH!
Used them to copy the files as you did.
Restarted A7.
Still don't see the other partition.
PS. I was just rereading your earlier post and you mentioned:
I did try to mount the new partition to /storage which is also /sdcard and i was still not able to use titanium backup to move apps. The only way i have alot of space is use this method.
I'm also mounting the fat32 partition to location /storage so that when i download apps thats where they are stored until you install them. Also Titanium backup dumps the backups here. This is done with a custom mod of Dexters 1.0c mod.
Looking on my A7, I don't see a location that is /storage
My tablet is fresh out of the box, without any firmware updates yet.

[HACK] Apps2SD improvement

For those people who are still using the Apps2SD approach, I have made a few modifications to some of the scripts. Primarily it adds the capability of users to remove/change their SD card without causing the phone to go on a boot loop.
The file can be found here:
https://github.com/trajano/xt720opt/blob/master/pkgexec/system/etc/install-recovery.sh
Readme can be found here:
https://github.com/trajano/xt720opt/tree/master/pkgexec/system/etc
This one gets put into /system/etc and the existing mot_boot_mode.bin should be put back to mot_boot_mode
This is the approach that link2sd used. so it saves one modification from the existing apps2sd/apps2card approach.
It also supports ext3 if you have the required kos loaded into the /system/lib/modules folder.
NOTE: The fix is to allow you to change and replace your SD card after an app2sd without having to deal with reflashing, but it will *try* to get your applications working again if you try to put back your original SD card. There are problems with the apps not loading after doing the reload most likely permissions problems in the data/data folder.
the link is not working dude.

Guide to partition SD card and use with Link2SD to store apps

I have been looking for something like this for a while. The flipout lacks internal memory and it soon becomes a problem if you want to have a good set of apps.
Here's what you'll need:
1. Rooted Flipout (I won't post instructions to this step, look for "Universal AndRoot")
2. Partitioned SD card (see below for instructions), depending on the method, you might need a phone with CWM to do this and ADB installed on your PC.
3. Download Link2SD from Market
So here are the steps:
1. Partition your SD card. There are many ways to do it. I will post two ways:
Use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition
My PC didn't like this tool and I wasn't able to use it. However, it should be quite easy, you just need to put your card in a card reader and build two partitions with the following characteristic:
First partition will be your main card partition, should be of the whole card size minus the extended partition you want to create
Second partition should also be fat32 (link2sd didn't like ext2 nor ext3 on the flipout, it only worked with fat32)
Use CWM. I personally didn't want to install it on the Flipout, so I used a Samsung Epic 4G for the steps. You should be able to use any phone with CWM to do it, put your SD card in the phone with CWM and boot into recovery:
adb shell reboot recovery
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 (open partition manager for SD card)
print (prints partition table)
Here you should have one partition table, starting at some point and ending at some point like 7969 if your card has 8GB. Take note of the End value as you'll need it.
rm 1 (deletes partition 1, this will erase all data on the SD card)
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7425 (creates a new primary partition, the second number should be the value you took note of in the last step minus the size in MB of your desired extended partition).
mkpartfs primary fat32 7425 7937 (creates the new partition for applications, starting at the end of the last partition and ending on the max size of the card. In this case I used fat32 as I couldn't do it with ext3 nor ext2, link2sd didn't like this format on the flipout for some reason).
The partitions are created and you should be able to go to the next step.
3. Reboot your flipout with the partitioned SD card, make sure to have link2sd installed.
4. Open link2sd, it will take a while, ask for root permissions (always accept and make sure to have Remember checked).
5. It will ask for the partition type, select fat32. If you are asked to reboot your phone you have everything setup, otherway please post your problem.
6. Once rebooted, open link2sd again and go to settings and configure. I don't like having all applications automatically linked as widgets and this kind of apps can fail if they are on the SD, so I have this setting unchecked. However this is a personal decision.
7. To move an app to the card, hold your finger on it and when the menu appears, press link and confirm.
8. To move an app from the card to the phone, hold on it and press unlink, check everything and wait for the app to be returned.
Further Tips:
Avoid moving apps to the SD that are use widgets or that run all the time like: messenger apps, alarm clocks, climate widgets, etc. I tried one or two without any failure but I feel they could be less reliable this way.
Don't remove your SD card if the phone is turned on, now it has a partition that is used by the system, if you remove it you could have issues, I would only remove the card with the phone turned off completely and not boot without the card.
I made some tests connecting the USB cable to the PC and using the phone in storage mode, the PC could see the primary SD card partition and the phone could still work with apps on the second partition, so it seems to be stable in this sense.
If you need to switch to another card, you would have to setup the new card in the same way; I don't know yet if backing up the second partition and restoring it to the new card will work. If your data is critical use some SW like Titanium backup to back up the apps that are linked, remove them completely and restore when you have the new card setup.
So, this has worked for me like a charm, the phone really seems stable and I have so far like 150MB of apps on the SD card. No need to have a newer Android version, it seems very stable.
Disclaimer:
Any process that involves rooting your phone and partitioning can potentially cause data loss and/or bricking your phone. Do this only if you are 100% sure of what you're doing, I will take no responsibility for any data loss / damage caused by this process.
If you have any questions I will be glad to help.
Hi great post above
I rooted my phone and I partitioned my sd card into 2 partitions , both FAT32 primary 3.7GB and when i open link2sd and select either ext 2 or ext 3 I get an error message
"Mount scrip error
Mount scripe cannot be created.
mount: no such device
ext 2 may not be supported on your device. Try FAt32 on the second partition"
Has anyone come accross this problem before ?
Hi,
When you open link2sd,scroll down and select fat32. I tried formatting the second partition with ext2 and ext3 wit no luck. Fat32 is working just fine.
Regards
Hi Thanks a million that worked great
thanks
hi i tried wat u told but after some time link2sd is showing failure that "cannot link readonly" can u help me
Your guide works great. Finally I can have all apps I like to have installed at once.
mschmiedel said:
[*]If you need to switch to another card, you would have to setup the new card in the same way; I don't know yet if backing up the second partition and restoring it to the new card will work. If your data is critical use some SW like Titanium backup to back up the apps that are linked, remove them completely and restore when you have the new card setup.
[/list]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can tell some experiences with backups.
Before I had blur stock rom with link2sd and changed to deblur central europe rom. After reinstalling link2sd all apps where still gone.
And even after restoring all user apps with titanium backup they were restored to phone memory. I had relink them with link2sd manually and to batch restore with titanium backup twice because it broke down in the middle because phone memory was full.
Unfortunately link2sd is no magically way to have them backed up apps and to be independent from the rom. Titanium backup is still needed but that is fine. Nothing seams broken after restore with TI and relink with link2sd.
lovdanie, it's strange, had no issues with the tested phone yet, I partitioned 500mb and it has already like 200-250MB of apps linked and is working great, no issues.
One thing that could have happened is that you removed the SD card. Are you sure the SD card hasn't been touched or formatted?
bagers, it's not really a magical solution, it's just a way to get more space on a phone that lacks internal memory...
Regards
Just for some info.. under windoze try the "MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition" makes partitions like charm..
Guys any one have links for disk partitioners? minitool is not a freeware as u have t buy it when you apply the partition. any one know a way roubnd this? please help
miniProBhashi,
That's why I always use CWM to partition the SD card. As I don't have it on the Bllur, I put the card on another phone I have with CWM and it always works... Maybe if you have a linux PC you could do the same thing...
Regards
Help
Hi, I just partitioned my SD card. When I open the Link2SD app, it did prompt me to select the file system of the SD card's second partion, however, after I select FAT32/FAT16, Link2SD could not gain root access, there's no pop-up of indicating me to select "Allow" on the Superuser Request. Now wot do I do. Please help, thank you...
Well, I would start checking the SuperUser app to see if there is some exception in there. If you don't have it, check out if your phone is rooted by installing some other app that requires root access.
If not, check the root method for your phone.
If it's the Motorola Flipout, download version 1.6.1 from this thread, install it and run it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=747598
Regards
mschmiedel said:
Well, I would start checking the SuperUser app to see if there is some exception in there. If you don't have it, check out if your phone is rooted by installing some other app that requires root access.
If not, check the root method for your phone.
If it's the Motorola Flipout, download version 1.6.1 from this thread, install it and run it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=747598
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is Galaxy ace, and superuser doesnt prompt anything on start-up.
Tried rooting manually, doesn't work as well
Hi,
I would try on a Galaxy Ace forum to check for the rooting process and validate if your phone is really rooted. When you are 100% sure you have root you can come back to this post and we can check if there's some other issue...
Regards
Flipout problem
Done all u told...
Then this problem came..
Mount script cannot be created.
mount: Invalid Argument
p0kjats said:
Done all u told...
Then this problem came..
Mount script cannot be created.
mount: Invalid Argument
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Have seen similar problems when using ext filesystems. Are you 100% sure that the secondary partition on the sd card is fat32? It really should work on the flipout without any issues.
Remember that you need:
* Rooted flipout
* Partitioned sd card (secondary partition must be fat32)
* Link2sd opened and allowed to use root permission
If you are sure you did everything stated above, we can look at it with more detail. What tool did you use to partition the sd card?
root permission
hi,
i have installed Link2SD from Market to my lg optimus p500 os,gingerbird2.3.3,when i stared to move app to sd it asks root permission.
so pls guid me to activate root permission in my device
drnags said:
hi,
i have installed Link2SD from Market to my lg optimus p500 os,gingerbird2.3.3,when i stared to move app to sd it asks root permission.
so pls guid me to activate root permission in my device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
It doesn't make much sense to use Link2SD if you're on Gingerbread as your OS natively can copy apps to the SD card (at least some of them). Just go to "Manage Applications", and select the app you want to copy, there should be an option to "Move to SD"...
If you still have some good reason to use Link2SD, you should first look in a forum for your specific device to find out how to obtain root (I cannot help because it varies for each device)... Once you have root access, I can help you out with this process.
Regards
miniProBhashi said:
Guys any one have links for disk partitioners? minitool is not a freeware as u have t buy it when you apply the partition. any one know a way roubnd this? please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I partitioned mine I used GParted Live. It's a Linux-based boot disk, but you don't really have to know anything about Linux to use it. Just download the .ISO and burn a CD, pop it in your PC and boot off it. Its free, graphical (not command line) and relatively easy to use. There is also an option there to set it up to boot live off a USB drive, but that's a bit more involved to set up.
gparted . sourceforge . net / livecd.php (sorry, it won't let me directly post links yet)
If you can burn a .ISO to a CD, you can probably figure it out. Just make sure you pay attention to which disk you are partitioning (look at the sizes) so you don't accidentally re-partition the hard drive in your PC.
EDIT: If there is anything you need to back up off the SD card, I would do that in Windows first, and then copy it back using Windows after. You CAN do this with GParted Live but there would be additional steps to mount / unmount the Windows partition on the PC that you want to copy to.
the bootstrapped recovery seems to be having a partitioning tool.
Maybe im wrong, haven't used it though

"live" version of root for Nook Touch

I have done multiple searches and not found anything like this, apologies if I missed it. Here goes ...
Is their a version of rooting for the Nook N2E that can be run completely from the SD card? (Think a Linux LiveCD) I would like to try some of the other eReader software available to see if I like them before I decide to fully root my Nook. If I knew enough about Android, I would attempt this myself, but I don't want to brick my device.
Currently, no. It is possible, and is widely used on the Nook Color, but the work just hasn't been done on the Nook Touch. There was someone working on it a while ago, but it seems to have been dormant lately...
WIP thread
There appears to be a semi active thread about this here. At least is should provide a starting point.
David0226 said:
There appears to be a semi active thread about this here. At least is should provide a starting point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't post on the development forum yet, so I am posting this here hoping others working on an SD boot image will see it.
I have been working on this myself.
I made a backup of my NST and then wrote that image to an SD card (4GB).
I changed the init.rc file and change all the mmcblk0p? file names to mmcblk1p?. I also changed the booting.png image so that I could confirm that my NST was booting from the SD Card.
I than inserted the SD Card and powered up. The booting.png image from the SD card showed up, but the device hung right there.
So I started looking at some other files. There is a file called env.txt that contains the following string:
root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootdelay=1 mem=512M
so I changed that to
root=/dev/mmcblk1p2 rw rootdelay=1 mem=512M
and attempted another boot. It still hung at the booting screen.
I suspect that it may not be able to access all the partitions on the SD card (after writing the backup image to the SD card, it contains 8 partitions, the 7 partitions from the NST and an eighth unallocated partition with the remaining 2GB from the card.)
My next idea is to attempt to get all the files off the SD card and create one partition that contains all the files in their correct directories and comment out the mount and mkdir commands from init.rc to see if I can get it to boot. (My problem is I have no easy access to a Linux system and WinBLOWS will not access the Ext2 and Ext3 partitions.)
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
My goal here is to attempt to get it to boot the "standard" NST firmware and if I get that working, then attempt to set up a "rooted" OS on the SD card.
Progress????
Okay, now I got it to start a boot from the SC card and eventually I got a message that said failure to install.
Here is what I did.
After inserting the SD card into a linux machine, I mounted all the partitions.
I then copied all of the data into a single directory preserving the directory structure from the mounts.
I tar'd up this directory and ftp'd it to my windows machine.
On the Windows machine, I used bootutil to unpack the init.rc and env.txt files from uRamdisk.
I modified the files as can be seen in the attachments and repacked them.
Then I renamed the directories to correspond with the device file names they were supposed to mount from.
Then I created a single FAT partition on the SD Card and copied the directory structure to it.
It did not hang this time, so perhaps I am getting closer.

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