[Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini] drfr:
Hey guys,

people keep asking about how to use a2sd and/or other ways to move your apps or data to an external storage /SD/, so Mat asked me to try to put down some little tutorial about the topic. Here I am, surely not the biggest expert on this, but let me give it a shot. First thing to say is - if you plan to install only a couple of basic apps, you probably don´t need this at all. But our internal memories are hopelessly small, so the chance is big that many of us will encounter the problem.

Basically, you can choose between these options:

A. use in-built capabilities of this ROM

OR

B. install some additional app

Also you can

1. use your SD with only one FAT partition left untouched, as it came with your phone

OR

2. partition your SD card to create ext (2,3 or 4)

Not going to elaborate here on how to partition SD and what are the differences between filesystems, trying to keep this short. Maybe just one thing - the easiest way to prepare your SD for option 2. is to go to CWM and look for - advanced/Partition SD card. /Just one last thing - you will see the option to setup the swap there- but it is a COMPLETELY different story, skip it for now. If you´re still interested, there is a tutorial about it in this thread too/

A.1. Native app2sd. Android from times of Froyo has an in-built capability to move your apps to SD.

Pros: simple to use

Cons: if you connect your phone to PC, SD gets unmounted and every running app will crash. Many apps are not moveable by default.

A.2. ap2sd script. It sits in your phone already, but to use it, it needs additional steps.

Here they are:

a/ run Terminal Emulator and do:

su
a2sd install

Script is going to ask you, if you want to move dalvik-cache too, after Y or N the phone auto-reboots, and that´s it. To check if it worked type in terminal

mount

and look for /dev/block/mmcblk0p2/ /sd-ext ext4 (or 3)

If you want to see all the options this script gives you, run just

a2sd

without any argument and it will show you a complete list.

b/ do the same in adb shell

Pros: not so hard to do either, uses ext3 or 4 /NOT ext2/, you can mount your device to PC freely, persists wipes /except for sd-ext formatting of course/

Cons: maybe not for complete newbs, you can only move all the apps at once, you can´t move them back, because with

a2sd remove

option it only removes flags, so next installed app goes to internal and older ones stay on ext.

Note: from my experience I don´t advice to move dalvik or data, it slows the system down, even with my class 10 SD. Edit: it is true only with dalvik. Now I have my data on ext and it works smoothly.

Further reading from the original author of the script: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=21222591&postcount=1375

B.1 Titanium Backup /and other apps, but TiB is widely known and used/. This is basically the same as A.1.

B.2 Links2app. An app from Store.

Pros: gives you much more freedom in choosing which app to move or not, you can always revert the process, and many other possibilities

Cons: some say it´s hard to use, some say many other things - especially in comparison with a2sd there is a huge debate on the net with 50% of users swearing by one and 50% by the other. Try to google and you´ll have hours worth of endless reading.

Note: you can´t use ext2 with this rom. Note2: Link2sd uses symlinks, a2sd uses bind-mounting. So what? Try to google.

Further reading from an official web: http://www.link2sd.info/description

I know this is too simplistic, especially regarding pros and cons, experts would forgive and newbs hopefully would have starting point for their own reading, thinking, trying a reading again.

Now, Mat, if you like it, you can do your colourin´ and formattin´ magic and put it to your FAQ. :D And feel free to add anything you consider important enough. :cowboy: