[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] s300pmu1:
1. What's all that geeky stuff about A2SD+ \ Data++?

1.1. What is the difference between A2SD+ and Data++ versions of LeeDrOiD V3.x.x Bravo GB?

With Desire's stock ROM, little ROM is available for user apps as the \data partition is very small (147 MB).

With A2SD+ ROM, somewhat more is available, as dalvik cache and apps are moved to sd-ext. However, some data is still written to the \data partition, so no matter what, the "Internal memory" will decrease.

Data++ version gives you yet more internal memory for app installation than A2SD+ version, however, it is a little trickier to both flash and customize. As it does not move dalvik cache to SD, unlike A2SD+, dalvik cache still occupies a considerable amount of internal storage. This makes the system marginally quicker than A2SD+, at the expense of available internal memory and placing a cap on the total volume of installable apps (which is still considerably higher than in the A2SD+ version). Furthermore, it can be moved to sd-ext as well, freeing more memory still (see subsection "Things to know if using Data++" below, item 5).

To actually free more memory for user apps, data++ version moves a number of system files from \system partition to sd-ext. This in turn allows to redistribute the partitions of the phone memory:

- system partition is reduced to 145 Mb at the expense of files moved to sd-ext and\or deleted

- cache partition, originally 40 Mb and empty most of the time, is reduced to 5mb

- data partition (the one shown as "internal memory" and available for your user apps\dalvik) is increased at the expense of the two mentioned above to 287 Mb, which is 140 Mb larger than stock.

This partitioning is determined by the hboot you use. So, in order to enjoy the benefits of data++, you will have to flash the required hboot first, which is Bravo CM7 r2.

Another difference between A2SD+ and Data++ is that you DO NOT have to have S-OFF for A2SD+ but YOU HAVE TO HAVE S-OFF for Data++.

1.2. I installed Data++ version and have an xx Gb ext partition. Why isn't my internal memory same size, i.e. xx Gb?

Data++ is NOT the same as Data2Ext. Data2Ext (same as Data2SD) will increase the size of "internal memory" as percieved by your system to the size of your sd-ext (it may also require two ext partitions instead of one depending on implementation). Data++ will NOT increase your internal memory to the size of sd-ext; it will only free some NAND memory by moving some system files to sd-ext and re-allocating the freed space to \data by using oxygen hboot.

1.3. I do not have enough memory for my apps!!!

If you're using A2SD+:

- If you have dalvik on nand (which is default for latest builds of this rom), move it to sd using respective patch listed in this FAQ. This will result in marginal (or noticable, if your card is slow and\or your luck runs out) performance degradation.

- If you need more space or want to leave dalvik in nand for better performance, switch to data++ version of this ROM.

If you're using Data++:

- If you have dalvik in nand (which is default in last builds), move it to sd using respective patch listed in this FAQ. This will result in marginal (or noticable, if your card is slow and\or your luck runs out) performance degradation.

- If you still need more space, either try increasing the size of your ext partition, or switch to a different ROM offering data2sd capability.

1.4. What else do I have to keep in mind if I want to use the Data++ version?

1. As cache partition has been reduced to 5 mb in data++ version-compatible hboot:

- a ramdisk is used instead of it for caching downloads from the market. However, RAM is not used when not needed, so you should not worry about your RAM being squandered.

- to update the radio, you have to use fastboot ('fastboot flash radio radio.img'. Radio.img is to be extracted from the radio update.zip beforehand) or update radio using stock hboot prior to flashing modified hboot. I guess you can also use Android Flasher, which is basically a GUI for ADB flashing commands, though I've not tried it myself.

2. Since location of some system files has changed in data++ relative to stock ROM (i.e. they were moved to sd), flashing UOT kitchen mods and themes can be tricky. More on this below in the respective section.

3. Having sd-ext on sdcard may negatively affect the read\write performance of the fat32 partition (this one goes for A2SD+ as well, though).

4. Even if you install data++ version, which has dalvik in internal memory, you can move dalvik cache to sd-ext to free space for your apps at the cost of a small performance decrease using the dalvik2ext patch.

6. If you want to go back from Data++ rom to a2sd+\stock rom, be it by flashing or restoring a nandroid, you will have to flash stock hboot first!

1.5. I have Data++, but my internal memory is only 287 mb, not 1Gb <substitute your value> of the sd-ext partition. What's wrong?

You've clearly missed item 1.2 of this FAQ. Please scroll up and read it.

1.6. How do I tell if my Data++ is installed correctly and working?

If the phone boots, that means sd-ext is working all right.

You can also use free market app Quick Sytem Info to check if it shows you A2SD storage. It should obviously be non-zero but equal to the size of your sd-ext partition.

You can also see in the same program the Internal memory size. Total should be 287 mb, if it is not so, you're on the wrong hboot. See item 2.3 of this FAQ to learn how.

1.7. is there a data2ext version of LeeDroid 3.3.x?

No. If you need a lot of space, try the data++ ROM with dalvik-cache on ext. It should be faster and more stable than data2ext.

1.8. How do I check where my dalvik cache is?

- You may use DiskUsage and let it show /data

- You may use RootExplorer

- You may use ADB, with the command: adb shell ls -la /data

If it's a directory then it is on data. If it is a symlink then it's where the symlink points to. :-)

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