[Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]] Bub3d:
How to use your PC or NAS as internal sd.

I want to show a method how to use a directory on a PC or NAS as inernal_sd.

With this method it is easy to test games and decrease the device storage write cycles.

Also no need to copy to the internal storage.

For example: You can load emu roms or put the obb files there and.

Even a swap file works but this involve further steps, which does not described here.

Only tried on kitkat 4.4.4 and Nougat 7.0.

Tested Devices: kitkat 4.4.4: GPD G5A, GPD G7A, GPD G7, GPD Q9, GPD XD (RK23288)

Nougat 7.0: Nvidia Shield Tablet K1

You need:

- root (SuperSu)

- xposed framework (2.7)

- xposed module XinternalSD (4.8 )

- cifs manager or Mount Manager (1.041) / for me, this work only if I disable Mount namespace seperation in SuperSu settings tab (2.49) and restart my device.

1. create a directory on your PC with the name: internal_sd2

2. share this directory

3. create a directory in your device with the name: cifs

4. Mount the share with cifs manager or Mount Manager to your device with the mountpoint: /mnt/internal_sd/cifs/internal_sd2

5. In XinternalSD settings

- select Custom path to internal SD Card

- set the path to the mountpoint of the share : /mnt/internal_sd/cifs/internal_sd2

- select Enable for all apps (new installed apps becomes enabled by default)

- select Disable for apps and choose apps you dont want to store their data on the mounted share.

6. Restart your device

Now this shared folder becomes a internal_sd and behave like this.

If your share is disconect than selected apps store their data in the folder selected in XinternalSD on your device.

If your share is disconnected and you create a folder with the name nomount in the folder selected in XinternalSD, then you know the share is connected when this folder dissappear and vica versa.

The folder names could have other names and it would work.

Ps:

With Network Monitor Mini it is easy to see if data is downloaded or uploaded:

I use this mainly to test if sideloaded games work.

Just extract the game data and put it in the Android/obb or Android/data folder in the shared folder instead of copy to the device.

An deinstall will not delete the files.

If you edit an apk file with apk editor, the app save the new edited apk file in the shared directory.

A apk backup with system app remover does the same.

The Android Game Morrowind Port is 1,2 gb in size and contain over 7000 files.

These files normally need to copy to device storage just to know if it will run or not.

The device I use to try out things is a GPD G5A and despite I use sd_boot with plenty 14gb data partition and 44gb internal_sd partition, it would take time and the 64 gb sd card would degrade do to write cycles.

I also use an GPD G7A and an GPD G7, with the shared internal_sd folder I dont need to copy the files to each device.

A mounted folder in the storage behaves like a real folder and all apps can read this as a regular folder.

A 1tb external hdd connect via usb to a router with nas can share plenty of roms, videos or music files which would be accessed immediately, without downloading like es file explorer does.

For example in epsxe you can choose this mounted folder as it would be on your device.

The download max with GPD G5A is 4,5 MB/s and this is obviously slower than the device internal_sd, but seems to be enough. It takes a lttle bit more time to load a game compared to store it on the device, but after this you would not notice any difference.