[HD2 Android NAND Development] Yank555:
Whatever to SD

In ways to get your apps to SD, you're entering a whole big world of possible choices with small to big differences in the way they work...

First off, you need to know that (user) APPs are stored into the "/data/app" folder. On a stock ROM, "/data" will almost always reside on the last NAND partition, by default at least.

And this includes the dalvik-cache (/data/dalvik-cache) as well, apps will use space in there, too ! Just as "/data/app-private" will do as well...

There are more ways to get apps to SD :

1) The simplest way is stock functionality

I believe this is possible since 2.3.x (I've not known Android before...) which will move the apps, only those that are willing (so not all will be movable) onto the FAT32 partition of your SD card, mixed with whatever you have in there (docs, music, pictures...).

Then there is the dalvik cache ... and this cache will then still reside on your NAND partition (/data/dalvik-cache), so you'll end up with no space left sooner of later anyway, even if your SD card still has plenty of it left.

As an example, the current space usage on my HD2 is :

/data - 651.06Mb

/data/app - 323.86Mb

/data/app-private - 10.74Mb

/data/dalvik-cache - 139.47Mb

Make your maths, with an ICS ROM that will require a 200Mb system partiton at least, you'll end up with a NAND data partition of only around 200Mb at best on a leo512...

If you ask me, not a good solution, since you need to move your apps to SD explicitely, or use an app that will try to do that for you, and not all apps will allow it anyway, or work when you do.

2) Using sd-ext partition

So this is now the more serious way to get rid of the limited NAND capacity problem...

I'll open a small parenthesis here, since sd-ext is on the SD card, the speed of that one will be an important issue. Use class 6 (preferably, or class 4 otherwise like I do, but no less), and don't, I repeat don't, buy a class 10, they're slower on the HD2, so slow actually, that you won't want to use your HD2 anymore !!

Now you can move the whole "/data" to you SD ext partition, or just parts, like app, app-private and dalvik cache only.

2a) DATA2SD

You can find the necessary scripts and procedure to follow here.

This will move the whole /data folder onto your sd-ext partition, which means, Android will be fooled to believe, that the sd-ext partition

actually IS

your internal memory.

This means that you need to install all your apps on "internal memory", since that is your sd-ext partition.

The good point is, you will see the correct used and free space in your settings, since Android checks the status of "/data" and that is your sd-ext partition. All apps work, since they believe to be in the internal memory.

The bad point is, everything in "/data" will be moved, and with some cards (especially class 10), your system gets a lot slower, sometimes to a point it will become unresponsive, generating loads of FCs (had that with a 32Gb class 10 card with this ROM, so I reverted back to my class 4).

Anyway, sd-card performance most likely is slightly slower than NAND, but on some card calsses, a lot slower (have I already mentioned that class 10 cards are bad on the HD2 ?? :D).

2b) AMARULLZ DATA TO SD-EXT

You can find the necessary scripts and procedure to follow here.

This will move parts to sd-ext, but keep parts in NAND, so using the best of both world, space on sd, speed on NAND.

It should give better responsiveness on "slow" cards, but might for instance not show the correct used / free space in settings... And at some point may also have a space bottleneck since parts of /data will still be in NAND, but that's not likely to happen.

2c) Loads of other breeds

You will have to search through xda, and read and try what variation works best for you.

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As for me, DATA2SD is IMHO the cleanest way, performance with my Transcend 32Gb class 4 card feels the same as with NAND, so I went down that path... for quite some time now and still am totally happy with my choice !! :cool:

Hope this helps ! :)

JP.