[Samsung Galaxy SL i9003] Taxman.:
Hi! This is my first thread. I hope i chose the appropiate subforum.

I saw no particular thread concerning this information. I took the liberty of compiling it all together here.

This thread may come handy if:

-You tried to restore a nandroid backup and for an unknown reason cwm would not allow you, giving a /system error. Even though you tried reflashing rom you could not restore the corresponding backup.

-You tried ext4 conversion, there was an error sometime during the conversion and you ended with a bootlooping phone.

I will convey you my personal experience.

Warning: When flashing kernels, roms, converting to ext4, rooting and doing other modifications you lose your warranty. I am not responsible for any inconvenience or problem you may encounter after/while doing this. Modifications are up to each user and they are their responsibility.

Read carefully everything.

Before anything, i recomend creating a nandroid backup in cwm, just in case. I also recommend having the baterry well charged.

Mi personal experience is based on KPH with Bam Custom Kernel (r14fix with CF-Root), deodexed. I had

23 free MBs in /system

.

Moving on:

-Error while restoring nandroid backup:

Quoting XDA_Bam from this forum:

“It is not possible to successfully restore a nandroid backup if there are less than 10 MB of free space in /system. This is a "feature" of the RFS file system and we currently do not know any way to circumvent this. This also affected the ext4 conversion process, but has been fixed in beta 14. Credits go to madrooster for stating this fact and loSconosciuto for testing it on our device.”

Quoting IoSconosciuto from this forum:

“Nandroid backups of the /system partition where the backed up partition had less than 15MB of free space will not restore completely, due to the way the rfs filesystem works. This should only affect restoring a backup of a stock ROM.”

Depending on the source, the necessary free space varies from 10-15 MB. The more free space you have in /ststem, the better, just to be completely sure. Stock roms generally have less than 10 free MB and because of that problems appear when trying to restore the backup. What you need to do is to free some space in /system. Here are some ways of achieving that:

a) Uninstall some unnecesary system apps (you need to be root and have a file explorer app, such as Root explorer or ES file explorer).

b) Another way is to deodex the phone. Deodex apps take up less space than the equivalent odexed apps from default.

Regardin b), IoSconosciuto said:

“If skin's tool worked in the past, it's because Samsung is adding more and more stuff in /system, older ROMs were smaller. That's why there were no problems before. Another reason is that lot of users deodex their rom first. The result of this operation is more free space in /system. ("odexed apk + odex" > "deodexed apk")”

To know how much free space you have in /system you can use Titanium Backup. It is right away in its main screen when opening the app. (Titanium backup requires root)

Another user, in another forum not only solved the problem when restoring a nandroid backup on his i9003, but he also could successfully restore an otherwise non working backup on Motorola Atrix. So, this may be something more universal regarding Android and rfs file system!!

-Error while converting the partitions to ext4:

This issue is closely related to the first one since converting to ext4 implies restoring a nandroid backup.

Quoting again IoSconosciuto:

“Due to the ext4 overhead, you have less free space in /system after the convertion and that gives problems when you restore a backup. These few MBs of memory are not lost, they are reserved, but you can't use them for normal data.”

Again, when trying to convert to ext4 it is recomended that you have al least 10-15 free MBs of space in /system. The more, the better. Ways of freeing more space are as previously described: a) and/or b)

When the phone tries to restore the backup it may encounter that there is not enough free space, it then gives /system error and you have a phone half-way through conversion that bootloops and you have to flash everything again...

Nonetheless, amig.bagaria (user from this forum) developed a tool (.apk) that backup, converts and restores the backup automatically: ext4 add-on .apk

Use thing method instead of flashing the zip in CWM. One of the main advantages of this app is that when converting it is able to discern is there is enough free space in /system. If there is, it converts flawlessly. If there is not, it informs the lack of space and restores the /system backup in RFS!! (the rest of the partitions will still be on ext4, with exception of /system that will have returned to RFS). The phone will boot normally and in this way we avoid flashing everything from scratch if something goes wrong!

Using this app is as simple as: install, open, allow superuser permission, touch “Convert to ext4”. The phone will automatically boot in CWM and will do everything on its own. You just have to sit back and watch. Once finished it will automatically reboot.

To check the conversion you can open again amit.bagaria´s app. There under each partition you can read either rfs or ext4. If all partitions were correctly converted, in addition of reading “ext4” below each partitions, the “Convert to ext4” option will appear gray-shaded and you will not be able to select it. If it still appears in white it means that something still needs converting. Probably /system. Check above.)

Note: I use this app having Bam Custom Kernel (r14fix with CF-Root). It is important to have the latest version of amit.bagaria´s CF-Root (version 9, from 01/02/12). I have no idea if this method functions with Skin1980´s CF-Root. The most logicall thing should be that i does NOT function. It is up to each individual user to try and see the outcome...

One last thing:

Bam latest Kernel (r14fix) if modified to have more free space in /system:

“Universal CF-Root: Corrected problems because of too little free space in /system when converting to ext4 by permanently moving InfoAlarm.apk from/system/app to /data/app. Thanks to loSconosciuto.”

Anyway, you should check again your free /system space in /system and make more space if it is still necessary.

I hope to have been clear and that this helps you as it helped me.

Tale care!

Credits go to: XDA_Bam, IoSconosciuto & amit.bagaria. I might be forgetting other users in this thread in question: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1355675