yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G1 Android Development] bhang:
REPLACES the internal memory...?

So the internal memory isnt used?

kinda the same trick as the browser cache and market cache, just a bit more complex as its an entire filesystem your moving, which wouldnt let the sys see the internal, mem, please correct me if im reading it wrong, Im not a total noob at linux but no guru dev either...

bhang
[G1 Android Development] jashsu:
The internal memory is still used, just not for /data/app

It should probably be /sdcard/app. In any case, this is a fairly complex mod that is

not suited for Linux newbies

. I would advise against folks considering this mod unless they understand and can test each step before attempting.
[G1 Android Development] neoobs:
I agree and added a warning to the first post
[G1 Android Development] Stericson:
Ummm yea, so what happens when you mount your sdcard for storage? I expect the phone goes crazy?

This tutorial, if you could call it that,(no offense) is really badly written and this process seems too risky for what you gain considering that if we are patient google will come out with this themselves.

Stericson
[G1 Android Development] jashsu:
The procedure calls for two partitions on the microsd, one FAT32, other EXT. Theoretically it should work with mounting for mass storage. However, I agree that it's a rather sloppy hack.

There is talk about a similar strategy being officially implemented by the Android team. Instead of two partitions, it would be loopback mounted to a file in the FAT32. That would also provide some encryption security. See here. It's just talk though. Won't be a reality for at least a few months.
[G1 Android Development] Stericson:
Well talk is certainly better than nothing...thanks for the info....

Stericson
[G1 Android Development] tempo10:
I post a method withtout compiling the ramdisk.img but that do not force mounting the sd ext2 drive under rootfs but still workable...probably when i back to work I can compile 1 to flash
[G1 Android Development] TheDudeOfLife:
Am I the only one that thinks there are a few things that are getting 'lost in translation' here?

I'm not getting /sd mounted properly upon reboot...there's no way I'm going to continue attempting this till I see a better (no offense) tutorial or do a little more research on the command lines.

I would really shy away from this if you're an average user or don't know what mountd and init.rc files are used for....this could flat out wreck your phone.
[G1 Android Development] pershoot:
/sd is /sdcard (mount point for the micro sd card's partition)
[G1 Android Development] IzzeLing:
I'm getting stuck right here:

8. busybox cp -a /data/app /sd/

9. rm -r /data/app

10. ln -s /sd/app /data/app

11. reboot

It's saying read only system blah blah, even though I have indeed mounted it is rw
[G1 Android Development] TheDudeOfLife:
No....no it is not.

/sd is a mount of the ext2 partition used for the 'copy' of /data/app (one of the things i disagreed with is picking /sd as a mount point for the second partition.)

/sdcard is the fat32 mount point...used as usual for mounting files.
[G1 Android Development] TheDudeOfLife:
Type mount in adb shell and see if /sd is even mounted. I wasn't seeing it in my list. I don't think his mount command in the init.rc is correct, but I'm too busy with holiday stuff.

Don't rm -r /data/app if you have not 100% verified the copy works.
[G1 Android Development] jashsu:
This line looks mangled (need flags in the args):

Edit: nevermind, looks like it should work in the init.rc
[G1 Android Development] pershoot:
ahh yea. i just re-glanced over the instructions.

cool.
[G1 Android Development] IzzeLing:
Yeah, don't see it. Hm.
[G1 Android Development] f4phantomii:
Is there a list of apps that *don't* run or force close when you move them to the SD card?

I'm finding a lot of them don't work or force close, even on my Class 6 SDcard.
[G1 Android Development] Shaunsational:
Low Space Error

I did this well over a month ago and have a ton of apps installed... i moved my app, app-private, and cache directories to the sd card with a 2gb partition... yet i just got a low space error on the phone..

what could be causing this?
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
I am with ADP1.1 and I can`t commit this commands. I`ve read that this tutorial is for JF only. Is there a way to install apps on my sd card with ADP 1.1?
[G1 Android Development] shafty023:
Yes as long as you have a terminal that u can su to root then you can install apps to your SD card. You don't need to use adb commands or any scripts to move the apps. It depends if u already have your SD card partitioned and just need apps moved over, or ur at step one.
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
I have a partitioned sd card with one ext2 partition and one fat32. I`ve managed to change the mountd.conf as it was in this article, but it does`t work for me. I had to change this row:

block_device /dev/block/mmcblk0p1

to this:

block_device /dev/block/mmcblk0p2

I suppose that my fat32 partition is on block_device /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 .

But I have no init.rc on /system/ . So right now I am using my fat32 as /sdcard, but I can`t mount the ext2 partition.

What steps should I do?

Thanks!
[G1 Android Development] shafty023:
You need to have 2 "primary" partitions. Not one primary and one extended. Your fat32 formatted partition should be the first partition and the ext2 formatted linux partition should be 2nd. It sounds like you have them backwards. You should be mounting the ext2 partition to /system/sd. I've noticed there's a "bad" mountd.conf file floating around that tries mounting the ext2 partition to /sd which will never work. You also need to make sure /system/sd is a real directory. If you haven't created it you need to. It can't mount to a non-existent mount point. You'll need to change /system to read-write in order to create the partition.

As root,

mount -o rw,remount /system

mkdir /system/sd
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
Where should I put the init.rc ? In this tutorial it is supposed to overwrite /system/init.rc, but I have no such file there.
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
You can just put it in the /system/ directory. That's where it belongs.
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
Apps not recognized as installed in market

I noticed that I go to the market and go to "my downloads" and it shows the list of apps that I have installed, but they are not showing that they are installed. Also, before I performed the hack, I know that I had several updates due. I went to snag the update, and it's showing that the apps are not installed. Even though I can use them all just fine.

Is anyone else having this problem?
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
When I use "mount -o rw,remount /system" I get:

Usage: mount [r] ....
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
Are you going through adb shell? Try this command instead:

mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
Yes, I am using adb shell. Is there any difference? The last command worked. Now I have

/system/sd

mountd.conf

/system/init.rc

uploaded. But when I wrote: "busybox cp -a /data/app /system/sd/" I get:

busybox: not found
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
If you are already in a shell for your phone, you don't need the busybox command. Just follow the commands without it. Also, be sure that you've made the changes that dwang posted on page 3 of this thread to the mountd.conf and init.rc files.
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
I have doubts that my system is not mounted and when I run df:

I did not found any /system/sd

The only partitions are:

/dev

/sqllite_stmt_journals

/system

/data

/cache

/sdcard
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
Yeah, that doesn't seem right. you should definitely see /system/sd. How much space did you partition? Also, did you set up your ext2 partition as a Primary at the end of the FAT32 partition?
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
It is 250 mb and they are both primary partitions.
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
You said that you didn't originally see the init.rc file in your /system directory right? I wonder if there was more than that missing. Can you run ls on your system directory and tell me what's in there?
[G1 Android Development] serialtoon:
I simply have to ask, what is the purpose of this? Are you guys seriously running out of space that you MUST install apps to SD? Doesnt this just make the phone even more sluggish?
[G1 Android Development] redspace:
lib

framework

fonts

sd

etc

build.prop

xbin

init.rc (I put it there)

usr

sounds

bin

media

lost+found

app
[G1 Android Development] joadchob:
help i screw up my phone with this

Hey man i followed ur instructions and i got success but then after some hours of trying to install applications it make to close my app, and some minutes ago, it said force to close, and i reboot and now it just cant enter to the system, it keep charging with the image of android..please help what can i do..is there a way to fix the problem...PLEASE
[G1 Android Development] joadchob:
Help phone is not booting

Hello guys, i would like to ask your help, today i followed a post by jdc4429 to allocate my app in my sdcard, i downloaded the file ANDROID2SD.ZIP, which contains the files app2sd1.bat & app2sd2.bat, cache2EXT2.bat, data2EXT2.bat i followed the instructions and i finally could install my apps into my sdcard but when i was using my ahome i realized that it make me close the applications a lot of time, the last time it said something force or wait i clicked in force and it seems was stick so i rebooted and then it couldnt enter to the system, it showed the android image, the green one, one and more times, its seems is loading but then it showed again, the problem probably is the microsd, cause it seems the system is trying to boot from the sd which i dont understand, i tried to take out my sdcard but then the system seems to not load, cause it only show me my boot image not enter to the green android, i entered to fastboot but my phone is not in debuging mode cause the last time i unchecked that option, now i dont know what to do...im wondering if i delete the partition i did, it could resolve the problem, but i didnt try im afraid to break my phone, i also wanted to upgrade from the bootloader with an NBH but i dont know if that will resolve the problem i have a rooted phone with hardspl, everything was working fine before i allocate my apps in my sdcard, please please i need some help...i cant use my phone now, i feel so sad...buuu.

By the way i have jesusfreke rc33.

:(
[G1 Android Development] joadchob:
I could resolved my problem was not so difficult as i thought i just did the hard rest and it works now my phone is working :D, additionally i would like to comment my case, my phone was crashed cause i allocate my apps to a particion ext 2, i used some bat commands through adb, the things is that made my system unstable and then when i turned on i couldn’t load the home screen, after i did the hard reset everything looks fine but it seems my all app still are running in the ext2 partition cause I have droidsans working and I had everything(without apps) I did in my phone before, like boot image, multitouch and my firmware and os is the same..RC33 JF, im wondering if I could delete the ext2 partition or it can damage my phone any idea.
[G1 Android Development] :
Hey step up to the big legues and join the rest of us with cupcake builds with donut sprinkles, apps2sd is auto and we have ext3 and ext4, linux swap and a whole bunch of good stuff
[G1 Android Development] AnGeL_WiT_SiNs:
sd switch

Hello people..i was wondering if i can get some help here.. ive tried searching the forums and unless i missed something but couldnt find what i needed to know so hopefully im not posting this question where its been answered in another thread but here it goes.......

I have a one gig sd card with currently running on my g1 its 627mb with 329mb in the ext3 partition..running cm mod 4.1.999... with over naahh only 52 running apps that are in the second partition..WELL! i just recently bought

a 4gig class 2 sdhc memory card.. my question is how would i transfer all my data on my 1 gig to my new 4 gig card without messing anything up..i ran the fat32+ext2+32mb swap off my recovery mode on my new 4 gig..im using amon ra recovery..

Then i installed wubi on my windows computer that way it can read my memory cards second partition..i tried to just copy from one card to the other and the fat32 copied with no problem but when i tried to move the second partioned files to the newley 4 gig card it said i didnt have permission...can someone help me solve this.. i would REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate if some one can help or maybe direct me to the right threat in which this question being answered.. i really want to switch my memory card for more space but i want to do it where i wont mess anything up cuz right now my phone is running real smooth...please help!

Mod edit: Please refrain from double posting, should you not receive an immediate answer from the XDA answering service you might try a forum search using google. We really do have a big knowledge base.
[G1 Android Development] lbingham:
Well, first, I would boot with the old SD and get Backup for Root Users. Run an all-inclusive back up with that. Then, I would update to CM's latest update, with my new SD. Log in and go to the market and get Backup for Root again. Then, put both cards into your PC and copy the BackupRoot folders. Then, run Backup for Root and do an all-inclusive restore.

That's just my method. I think your phone will look identical after that since only apps are stored on the 2nd partition. Then, you can still have copied everything from your 1st partition and ignore your permission issues.

Good luck.
[G1 Android Development] AnGeL_WiT_SiNs:
thanks alot im gonna try that out...thanks much
[G1 Android Development] alexanansi:
Can anyone tell me if the instructions should work on my ROM KiNgxKxOveR AOSP2.1Blend v0.9?
[G1 Android Development] Ace42:
This is verrrryyyy old and APPs2SD is the nam for it now and is automatic as long as a EXT is present on your sd.
[G1 Android Development] LostKid:
can i use this method for my legend?
[G1 Android Development] Psyber.Netik:
I'm on a Motorola Backflip running 2.1-update1. I don't have a mountd.conf file at that location. I do have a vold.conf file that seems to be it's replacement. Can anybody confirm that the posted mountd.conf file works to replace my vold.conf file?

I've attached a text version of my vold.conf file.
[G1 Android Development] Effdee:
do you see post #208?

that was posted over a year ago

also this is G1 forum, you may have better luck reading a Forum dedicated to your device
[G1 Android Development] Psyber.Netik:
I don't see a listing for my Backflip under the Motorola device listings. I know about apps2sd/apps2ext but I can't find a download to install it. I'm thinking AT&T is blocking it along with a few others on their market.
[G1 Android Development] bhang:
internal memory usage after this mod

what becomes of the internal fs and or the mem that it occupied?

Is it all used like ram on a pc to run apps on?

If the web and market caches don't seem to purge untill the "low space" error comes up, would they just bloat on up to fill the extra space if not moved or do they get moved by default, because the phone now thinks the partition on the sd is the internal FS?

I just want to understand how this affects the phone, I can make out from the commands what is going on but that is not what I want to know..thanks :)

If a g1 with its FS moved to sd rings in the woods but nobody is around to hear it, did somebody really call?

bhang

edit:

It just seems like there will be alot of storage on the handset FS that would sit unused, unless you added more *nix type stuff to like /bin or /sbin, or maybe debian or sumthin but ATM its just sitting unused, please correct me if im wrong, the OS doesn't see both /app dirs, correct?
[G1 Android Development] dwang:
I wonder if its possible to move /data/data to the ext2 sdcard fs? Will that cause any issues?

Also, would running apps off of the sdcard be slower than running it from internal memory?
[G1 Android Development] jashsu:
It is definitely possible. The only concern would be getting it mounted in the init.rc, as the sdcard service starts after /data/init.rc.
[G1 Android Development] dwang:
Ok I got it working. The missing piece from the OP is that you need to manually create the sd directory under /system (ie /system/sd) instead of rootfs (/)

adb remount

adb mkdir /system/sd

and then change the supplied init.rc

FROM

mount ext2 /dev/mmcblk0p2 /sd noatime nodiratime

TO

mount ext2 /dev/mmcblk0p2 /system/sd noatime nodiratime

all apps moved from /data/apps to /system/sd/apps run fine from the sdcard.

Now I'm going to try to move /data/data to the sdcard and hope it works!

EDIT:

Managed to move /data/data/com.android.browser to the ext2 sdcard partition (/system/sd/data) and the browser runs fine, but performance is significantly reduced. Is the sdcard that much slower than internal memory? :-(
[G1 Android Development] dwang:
So far this hack is working great. I have 35 apps installed and still have 60 megs of internal memory left. i use to be very careful about what apps i install, but now i just go crazy.

only problem i've encountered is that pacman won't install. it gives an out of space error or something. every other app i've installed works though. i would like to know if others are having the same issue w pacman.

df shows plenty of free storage

Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on

tmpfs 48.4M 0 48.4M 0% /dev

tmpfs 4.0M 0 4.0M 0% /sqlite_stmt_journals

/dev/block/mtdblock3 67.5M 67.2M 304.0k 100% /system

/dev/block/loop0 4.7M 4.7M 0 100% /system/modules

/dev/block/loop1 6.0M 6.0M 0 100% /system/xbin

/dev/mmcblk0p2 493.8M 26.8M 441.5M 6% /system/sd

/dev/block/mtdblock5 74.8M 14.2M 60.6M 19% /data

/dev/block/mtdblock4 67.5M 1.1M 66.4M 2% /cache

/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 1.4G 3.5M 1.4G 0% /sdcard

#

EDIT:

Fixed the pac-man issue. Pac-man is installed in /data/app-private and for some reason pac-man complains about lack of space even though I have plenty of internal memory, so I just created a symlink from /data/app-private to /system/sd/app-private and pac-man installed fine. I'm guessing the app and app-private directories need to reside on the same partition?
[G1 Android Development] JBDynamics:
Will this mod work on the Android Dev Phone 1 (ADP1)? I just got a new one today from BrightStar. I bought a G1 that was supposed to be over a month old, and it already had RC30 installed . I don't think that the init.rc and mountd.conf are the same on the different firmwares.

If the procedure is the same minus being able to use Tempo10's pre-configured files for JF's RC30 v1.2: My question is where do I add those 3 lines (insmod, mknod, & mount) in the init.rc file? And does "adb remount | adb mkdir /system/sd" come after step 3: "adb push /*the path of modified mount.conf */mount.conf /system/etc/mountd.conf" ?

Also, it is my first time using ADB, when I am specifying a path on my computer do I use for example c:\Users\Name\whatever ? Or do I copy it to the SDK directory on my desktop and /folder/mountd.conf is mountd located in the SDK directory in the folder named "folder"? I am new again to *nix again, I haven't run a *nix OS since Redhat version 4.* came out.

Last and finally, does anyone know if the ext2fsd utility will format a second partition on the MicroSD card after I make the first FAT32 with a Windows SD card format utility. Also, do I need to format the SD card while it is in the ADP1 or can I use a USB MicroSD reader or MicroSD to SD adapter and plug it into the SD card slot on my desktop?

Thanks Guys! :)
[G1 Android Development] dwang:
Hi JB,

This mod won't work on a stock ADP1 phone. You'll have to install jc 1.2 or 1.3 on it first.

Once you do, you can follow the directions from the OP. Only change you need to do is modify the supplied init.rc to point to /system/sd instead of /sd and run adb remount & adb mkdir /system/sd.

You can do adb remount and adb mkdir /system/sd after step3. That's fine.

I'm not sure if ext2fsd utility will partition your sdcard. I booted up linux and used gparted myself.

The easiest way to install linux is to use wubi.

http://wubi-installer.org/

Good Luck!
[G1 Android Development] ashshlay:
edited for my stupidity...
[G1 Android Development] nodens2099:
brings back some memory...

All this makes me think of my old sharp zaurus. Same problem : not enough space to install all the nifty apps out there, but sdcard support...

The approach used on the zaurus by the openzaurus / angstrom guy was to use a package manager that would be able to install packages on the sd (or flash). Then it would use the packages metadata (list of files) to symlink every file on root memory.

The big advantage to this method is to be able to have "root" apps (necessary for a functional device) and "sd" apps (not a big deal if not available because the sd card is removed).

Here, we could use a similar approach. I'm an android noob (got my ADP1 a week ago and only started to really play with it), but I understand that an application is only an apk file in /system/apps or /data/apps, so it would be even simpler (please correct me if I'm wrong).

So we need :

a partitioned micro-sd as described here by tempo10 (or by saurik in this thread)

a modified installer to install apps on the sdcard and symlink it in the /system or /data directory

a service to add/remove symlinks, plus doing the necessary homework (what is needed to install/deinstall, that is, register/unregister an app ?) when we need to change the card

optionnaly, the ability to move an app to or from the sdcard and creating/erasing symlinks as needed

Actually, all this could be done easily with some shell scripting, but I lack the (java, android) knowledge to make a nice usable app.

I'll first play a bit with symlinks to see what it does, thought :)
[G1 Android Development] CardinS2U:
thanks!

it work perfect! instruction need to be modify for newbies

but it worked fine.......

now got like 50% apps installed....haha no more watching out what stuff you install then uninstall
[G1 Android Development] diabolical28:
Can anyone who has done this say if moving the apps to the SD card resolves the phone getting a common case of errors due to high SMS/MMS's as is mentioned in other posted? or is still a problem
[G1 Android Development] dwang:
why do you think doing this would fix the sms problem? Are the sms errors due to out of space issues?
[G1 Android Development] philje123:
So am I right in thinking that this will not work on the UK RC8?

Thanks

Phil
[G1 Android Development] ashshlay:
this would free up memory and possibly help with the SMS/MMS memory issue if you are talking about when you get over several hundred threaded SMS/MMS without deleting them. It is advised that you delete your SMS/MMS threaded messages when they get around 300 per person.

I got caught up here:

busybox cp -a /data/apps /sd/

where it wouldn't copy from /data/apps saying the directory didn't exist.

I'm running the jf 1.31 update and was able to run the other adb commands but I needed to remount in between

Any ideas? I even edited the files to dwang's suggestions before I pushed them over

I ended up just pushing back my backup files as of now.