yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] yogi2010:
hi again, i was wondering if there is a way to reliably backup a ROM that has a2sd and an sd-ext partition? i formatted the sdcard using this classic v2.2.7 RCS, choosing ext4 for the sd-ext, with no 2nd ext and no swap partition. probably about 3 times i ended up with md5 mismatches when trying to restore backups of this setup. i figure i am missing something, did something wrong, or there is an incompatibility somewhere..... the ROM is MexdroidMod Atomic with darktremor's a2sd.

thanks in advance for any info, you rock!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] robuser007:
Great work, but I found a bug somewhere: no menu anymore.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Fallen Spartan:
Care to elaborate. No menu where? What version you using, touch or hardware buttons?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Sorry for the late reply.

If you get md5sum match errors there's a problem with your sdcard or the fat32 file system got corrupted. It has nothing to do with a2sd or sd-ext but only with fat32!

Try to repair it or better backup fat32, format and then restore.

If this doesn't help try another sdcard.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] yogi2010:
no problem, thanks for the reply. it worked! i backed up and reformatted the sdcard, just the fat32 portion, then made a new nandroid, and it restored perfectly. thanks again for your flawless work and support.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] dvsk69:
This is awesome stuff. Thank you for making this brilliant recovery.

Just flashed, re-did my partition and backed up my nandroid and everything worked like charm. Miles ahead of CWM in my opinion.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] MaxWiz:
Not sure where to post about features or if this has been discussed before. How about having a file manager aspect to 4ext? This would do away with ever needing to hook up to a pc and push files. Lets say you want to update a system .so file. You could have it on your sdcard, drop in to recovery and copy it to system, reboot and your done.

Anyone else think this would be helpful?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Yes this would be useful. But this is something for the next generation of 4ext recovery.

It's not possible to add things like that to the current 4ext code.

I'm working on the next gen since nearly 3 months now full time and I'm still not at the point where I can estimate how much longer it will take.

I hope that I'm at around 70%.

Please continue in the touch thread ;)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1377754

Thread closed.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] BootloopedMillennials:
Installing this.......

Thanks for providing an alternative recovery.

Edit: Do you have to uninstall Clockworkmod Recovery or does it overwrite it when installing?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] siulmagic:
it overwrites it.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Neejay:
How often does a TAR backup fail?

I didn't know anything about creating a TAR backup, but after doing research, looks like it's ok to do (minus no md5 checking).
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] ultma75:
Any body else have trouble downloading this app straight to the phone?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Theoretically it's better and *should* not fail, at least not more often than a "traditional" yaffs backup. It just hasn't been there for long so hard to tell.

CWMR5 is the first recovery supporting it. The master (Koush :) ) had code for it in CWMR4 already but it needed to be enabled by build.props.

What happens when you try to download it?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] ultma75:
It just downloads a 200kb file
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Only 200kb or 261kb?

It's only 261kb in size..
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] ultma75:
My apologies. Browser couldn't open the file. I installed with astro and works perfectly.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
np!

Glad it worked.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] MrFrankfromCM:
You have to install the downloaded .apk file from a file manager.

Click, Install, then once installed and in the app, click upgrade and then upgrade again and then it will see you G2/DZ and prompt to download the Recovery.....then boot into the actual Recovery.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] tsubus:
I've played around with it for a while and I have to say that I very much like it. It has a few features more than CWM5, but most importantly it hasn't frozen my phone at boot yet. I guess I'm keeping it! Thanks!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] G1ForFun:
Thanks for this! Nice work. :D
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Neejay:
+1 lol

I did talk to koush about it a couple days ago, and he said he was going to release an update for it soon.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] slovoflud:
amazing recovery!

Thank you so much!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] SnowOokami:
thanks! works like a charm :D
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] djfoo000:
Is anyone here kind enough to tell me why I might need this recovery instead of CWR? My usage of recovery has so far been only wipe /cache, /data, dalvik cache and flash zips.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] cjward23:
You don't NEED this recovery. It just improves on the all ready excellent Cwm.

Try it, if you don't like it switch back to CWM :)

If offers more features for advanced users. Have a good read through the OP to get all the details.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] lawalty:
I just flashed this (a few mins ago) and I'm very VERY impressed with its power.

To answer your question. The reason why I flashed this, is because CWR has become unstable. I use Rom Manager to help me update to the latest CM7 nightly every morning (yeah.. i know I can do it myself manually but I like the RM automation way better) and I been finding that CWR has been stalling on the HTC boot screen. It doesn't happen every time, but only now and then, and I would have to pull the battery and go into bootloader to bring up CWR.

I'm very impressed with the user control with this recovery, and if it does what it says it does, I will gladly pay for the premium version.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Herrera91:
Just flashed this recovery a few minutes ago and I'm vastly impressed with it. Since I'm always running MIUI, I have to flash not only the ROM but the mods for it (for my preference) as well one-by-one with CWR. But with this...this is amazing! All these features have made me switch over to 4EXT. Keep up the great work! ;D
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] zibiss:
Very useful tool. Many thanks. :):):)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] kusuriurikun:
I am VERY impressed so far with this recovery:

a) The darn thing Just Plain Works, which is more than I can say at present for the more recent CWM builds :D

b) Pretty much all that needs to be done when installing a new ROM (superwipe or EFS wipe/flash/kernel flashing if needed/RIL flashing if needed) can be done in one fell swoop (found this out when testing a specific MIUI config for the Missing NMEA Bug before going back to my old reliable favourite of ILWT CM7)

c) I do like the option to change formats if I so desired on partitions

d) Have I mentioned that, unlike CWM 5.x.x.x, it Just Plain Works? :D

e) The option to reboot straight into recovery is actually very nice for stock ROMs that (short of ROM Manager) don't really have that option.

You've done a bang-up jub of actually doing a decent, MODERN recovery that is now my preferred choice :D
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] tsubus:
I might have found an issue. I took a tar backup yesterday. Today I did a superwipe of the phone, and then I restored the backup. The phone boots up but su doesn't work anymore, I am not able to get root access on any app, not even from terminal (Superuser app correctly lists the apps with root privilege). Reflashing the ROM (without wiping) fixes the issue. I am not sure if this is due to the tar backup or something else, I have only tried once. I'll try again later.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Wow! Thank you all soo much :)

Really glad you like it.

But please give credits to Koush, because without him, 4EXT Recovery wouldn't exist at all!

I have the greatest respect of him. His code is simply amazing and his know how must be immense! The things I did with 4EXT Recovery are really NOTHING compared!

Also CWMR5 is very new, so if there are some bugs I'm sure they will get sorted very soon :)

Anyway, thank you all very very much for this awesome feedback. It's very motivating to hear that :)

---------- Post added at 12:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 AM ----------

Thank you!

Will add to known issues and send a notice.

This is a problem that first appeared when CWMR5 was released and introduced tar backups. I don't know if it's fixed yet.

I didn't know yet if 4ext was affected too.

However I will look into that and try to fix it asap!

So until it's fixed, don't enable tar backups! ( They are disabled by default)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] kusuriurikun:
Re the "TAR backup loses root" issue--I can safely say this issue does NOT affect backups NOT done as tarballs but using the pre-tarball method. (I do still have root, but I've never enabled tarball backups.)

Also--at least on my install, I am using EXT4 for my /system partition (this is standard with ILWT CM7, or may just be a fluke of my install--I've never explicitly changed partition types, just formatted between ROM tryouts).

I've a sense that possibly something with permissions might be getting munged with the tarball restores, but I can't be 100% certain on that...

---------- Post added at 07:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:21 AM ----------

I'm almost 100% sure (based on my own experience) that this IS an issue with the tarball method--I've done pretty much identical backup/superwipe/restore but the sole difference is that I DON'T use the tarball method (don't have it enabled) and have had no issues with apps needing root access being able to get it (for instance, with Titanium Backup doing the weekly app backup).

The one thing I'm curious on is if you did the superwipe with the script or not; I actually did "superwipe" manually by wiping/formatting the partitions that Superwipe wipes via script (I like to be really sure things are nice and clean :D) but I wouldn't think that would make a huge difference--Superwipe is well known and proven at this point, and I'd not think the new recovery would break stuff in that regard (I could well be wrong, though)...
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Yes, only tar backups can possibly be affected. The rest is "rock solid" :D

When I posted here I said that 2.1.6 RC2 was VERY stable "except maybe tar backups". It is/was a known issue for CWMR5 and I guess I'm in the same boat ;)

Now I'm glad that I didn't enable them by default :)

Edit: if anyone is able to reproduce this tar backups' issue which doesn't seem to happen for the majority that often, it would be great to know, because then it would be much easier to test possible fixes :)

Please send me a pm then.

Regarding "Superwipe" inside the app, it's nothing but formatting all your partitions in a file system of your choice at once.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Ok, if you don't want to be bothered by having to flash your rom again after a tar backup restore, even if it's without wiping, just don't enable tar backups in the settings and everything will be fine.

And anyone who would be willing to use / test tar backups anyway (if you know how to fix it fast if / when it happens), please do it ;)

I really need to collect some more information about that to be able to solve it :)

I tried but couldn't reproduce it on my device yet and I have restored a lot of tar backups already.

Thank you!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] andslide:
Do I have to partition my sdcard?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] cjward23:
No you don't.

Not to use this recovery anyway
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] cwhitney24:
Congrats on making the xda news my friend!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jminor4326:
Questions

Does this work with any / all Sense ROMS; what about GB or newer Sense? What about other phones - I have an EVO 4G. I have already partitioned my SD card with part being EXT3. Will this app work? The 4EXTRecovery site lists two apps, Recovery Updater and Recovery Control. Does one need both? When is each needed? Thanks for responses.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Thank you very much :)

And thanks for the great comment on the market :)

Take care :)

Hi!

Yes it works with any rom you install.

The evo 4g is not supported.

Currently only the Desire, Desire S, Desire Z /G2, Incredible S / 2, Desire HD /Inspire 4G are supported.

You only need the Updater app which is free and makes it easy to install and flash or just download the recovery version you like.

Also md5sums are automatically verified so you know that the download was ok.

(I will add links to the recovery images)

With it you can view changelogs and known issues and you get news when there are any critical bugs found or anything important.

The recovery control app includes that updater functionality and is currently only available on the market and soon on slideme.org and includes many other features.. when you take a look at www.4ext.net you see what each app can do.

If you want to test the recovery control app, there is a 3 day preview included in the updater app :)

The updater app is completely free of ads or naggings or anything else.. it's just a little app that makes it easy for me to keep you updated and add info to known issues, changelogs and inform you about any new bugs found for the latest recovery versions.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jminor4326:
Thanks madmaxx82 - great answer. Are there future plans to support additional phones.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Yes a few, but it will stay exclusive to only some devices :)

If it grew too big support would suffer and become more and more "anonymous".. I want it to stay "small" ;)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jminor4326:
thanks. You're right - good service is worth a lot! The app sounds incredible and extremely useful for ROM changers. I hope an EVO dev will see this and makes a similar app.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] EdKeys:
Thanks madmaxx82 for all the work you've put into this! You've done an excellent job on this recovery. It's a keeper, as far as I'm concerned. See my post in the Desire Z/G2 General thread:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1275569
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Yes, we need more small custom recoveries :)

Many features you see in the app are custom 4ext features, so they cannot work in another recovery as they are not standard.

Regarding the evo, I will maybe add it. Haven't thought of which phones yet, but some will be added.

Thank you very much! :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] bombadier:
Thats me converted,job well done Madmaxx82
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] yogi2010:
thanks for this, I flashed it and had no idea that restoring my backup in CWM had put me back on ext3! will upgrade once the trial expires. so basically do we continue using Rom Manager to download and flash ROMs? I noticed that RM now boots me into this recovery...
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Thanks both of you :)

Yes, I also have rom manager premium and I use it for downloading and online updating roms, like that very much!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] yogi2010:
thanks for the quick reply! I'm glad I tried this, and will use from now on.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] ben_pyett:
Congratulations!

well done on making the front page of XDA portal!!

New Fully Featured Recovery For G2 – 4EXT Now Available
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] c00ller:
I'm looking at the 2.1.6 RC2 changelog for HTC Vision, what does it mean by "Complete ROM Manager and CWMR5 compatibility"? Does that mean it can restore backups made by CWMR5?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Thank you mate! :)

Yes :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] yogi2010:
and I noticed that backups made by this recovery still go in the clockworkmod/backup folder :) correct?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Hehe yes, it's based on CWMR (all credits to Koush!) and wants to be as compatible as possible :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] c00ller:
Hi, I'm using 4EXT now :)

Anyway, I'm looking at the Convert/Format Filesystem menu and noticed that when you choose "convert/change backup -> EXT4" OR "convert/change backup -> EXT3" they both result in the same menu that says "Choose Partition to be converted". I think it would be helpful if it said "Choose Partition to be converted to EXT4" or "...to EXT3", respectively just so it is more clear that we chose the right option in the menu.

Great looking recovery :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Thank you :)

Yes, you are right!

Noted, and will change that.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] c00ller:
Thanks for the response! Also, same with choosing between "convert SYSTEM", "convert DATA" etc all lead to "Convert to EXT4?", which could say "Convert SYSTEM to EXT4?" Just some kind of final confirmation question with all the info would be nice to have
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] HunnyBearLewis:
Hey, quick question: I ran "Check Partition Alignment" and it recommended repartitioning - what will this do for the phone? Do I need to back anything up?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Ditamae:
Can't wait to get home and check this out. :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Are.Two:
Gave this a shot last night and I don't plan on looking back. Amazing recovery.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] mjybarr:
Dig it! So far so good! Thanks so much for this recovery!

Pure meXdroidMod!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] c00ller:
OP do you and/or 4EXT have a twitter we can follow so we can keep up with updates/news? :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] heybobitsme:
This recovery works very well. I especially like the fact that it prints your partition info and that you can change it. Well done!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Jarheadflip:
Have question when can we expect this on the sensation and mytouch 4g would have this on my phones thank you and great work
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
not yet, but probably soon :)

Thank you all very, very much :)

PM sent ;)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Jarheadflip:
Sent you a pm I think I sent it lol let me know
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Ditamae:
So I'm loving this new Recovery... definitely gonna stick with it in the future. But I do have a question regarding the themes... I've noticed that if I enter Recovery thru 4EXT Recovery Updater > Recovery > Manage your backups - in order to create a backup, for example, my theme is not preset. Text color, background, etc is all default. It appears that I have to boot into Recovery via the Power button or the Power Menu in order to see my theme while in Recovery. Is this some kind of glitch on my device or is this how the Recovery themes are supposed to function?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Thanks ;)

If you select 'stay inside recovery' your theme will load after the process (backup in your example) is finished and you can interact with the menu etc. The theme is not completely loaded to speed it up. But this can and will be improved in one of the next updates.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Ditamae:
You are most welcome. :) Really, 4EXT has every little setting I've ever wished was an option in Recovery (and more). And thanks so much for the information regarding the themes. That explains it. Very cool. I will stay tuned. ;)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] bombadier:
Trying to set up a SDcard swap using these instructions http://forums.virtuousrom.com/index.php?topic=58.0

having a problem with the partitioning the guide says to format ext to 128mb well the lowest with 4EXT seems to be 256 next I make a 256mb swap partition which is created but when I run the swap_script enabler It says there is no swap partition found,I would hate to go back to CWM(as good as it is) just to do this as I am well impressed with your endeavours MadMaxx82

What am I doing wrong?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Hi,

Do you have the app installed?

If so, send me a bug report through it and include all the logs so I can take a look at your partitions.

Maybe the script just doesn't find it.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] bombadier:
Wonder why the script cant find it? Sent off the report with logs attached (If I got that right)

Thanks for your attention and any help.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Got it!

There is no sd-ext partition ;)

Regarding sizes, it really doesn't matter for the script to find the partitions if they are larger..

Please try to partition again.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] bombadier:
Thanks for the response! What would you recommend to partition the ext to ? The guide says 128 mb but you are saying more like 768mb thats some amount of apps!!!!!!!!Will try again at 256 256 and see what happens

Thanks again

*****EDIT Solved **********
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
No, I just wanted to say that usually sd-ext up until now was nearly exclusively used by the Desire (of 4ext support devices point of view) where they use very big sizes since they are so short of internal memory ;)

That's why I didn't include sizes of 128mb up until now.

Will add them.. but the script will work with bigger sizes too :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] bombadier:
Yip all good now,had a think and everything makes sense now cheers again.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] androidtoy09:
I’m not sure why but my 4EXT theme was set back to default without me doing anything today when i reboot my phone. Anyone having this problem?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] cwhitney24:
You may have to uninstall the theme you currently have on there before flashing a new one. Check the op or my theme thread. The uninstall is posted in both.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Xnergy:
This recovery is amazing!! :D
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] dargocitfer:
I just experienced the same problem. I tried the "uninstall" theme, and I even reverted back to CWM and then re-installed 4EXT, to no avail.

I read in the "Known Issues" for 4EXT that if the theme disappears that it may be because it is not 100% compatible, and if that was the case to use "Recovery Control" to change themes. So, I took the *massive* $2 hit :p and installed Control. I was able to re-install the theme. Both of the themes I was trying were Whiskey103's themes from his thread.

I'll re post if the theme disappears again.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] madmaxx82:
Since version 2.1.6 the theme's location on the data partition isn't supported anymore. That's because the recovery took ages to load on the Desire.

Most themes use both locations, data and system.

But some only data.

They stop working. If you install the theme through the app it will manually install them to the correct location.

I still need to tell the theme creators about that. Very sorry I have missed that :(

Just didn't have enough time to think about that :D

Thanks for the support :)

Thank you very much! ;)

Haha that should not the reason to buy it :D

But thank you VERY much :)

I will tell whiskey.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] dargocitfer:
I was *GONNA* support you anyway, this just gave me the extra push over the edge. :D

Since you can't install themes using "Recovery Updater", this is just another reason to want the "full version".