Root [FAQ]ROOT MEMORY: a2sd+ / partitions (updated 10th August 2011)

[SUroot]

They should all be ok. But only tried 4+

Put my mate on a 2 with no complaints

 

[SUroot]

Added GUI steps for Gparted to clarify

 

[porter_james]

Why is this guide not stickied? Thx SUroot!

 

[SUroot]

Why is this guide not stickied? Thx SUroot!

There's a 1 sticky per forum rule. It is actually linked inside that sticky

 

[porter_james]

There's a 1 sticky per forum rule. It is actually linked inside that sticky

Ok, thx for clearing that up.I guess I'm too used to XDA's "stickies all over the place"...well two at least

 

[Irios]

Thanks for the excellent FAQ.
But, I'm simply baffled by how complex and advanced the procedure of rooting and acquiring app2sd+ is.

I want original HTC Sense on my HTC Desire 2.2. I dont want a custom GUI or anything like that. The only thing I want is more internal memory. The 148 megabyte that some nitwit at HTC decided would be enough - simply isnt that.
I've spent two whole days trying to figure out this mystery, but I'm not getting any closer to a solution it seems.
At first I believed it could not be done. A lot of pages would tell me you needed a custom rom to do this.
But I came across more and more pages referring to different ways of doing this.
But the guides are always pointing to other guides. And these guide are in their turn pointing to new guides. And guess, what? Those guides will in turn most likely point back to the first guides. Argh. And when I find a guide that seems to work, there are always broken download links rendering the guide useless.


I see myself as a fairly capable computer professional (windows), but this root stuff on my HTC Desire is pushing the limits of my patience and frustration....

Does anyone have a proper working guide that will explain how to do this?
Can it be done at all?
I would be very thankful for any help at all regarding this matter.

 

[SUroot]

One step at a time. You have to root first, then decide on the best way forward.

Custom Rom is easiest.

For rooting, I link to an unrevoked guide in my rooting faq. It does in turn link to a guide for installing drivers.

Install the drivers, root the phone then have a break. Baby steps.

There is no end to end guide because rooting, flashing roms, s-off etc are all different processes and everyone wants something different.

 

[Irios]

Hi there SUroot

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Yes, I rooted first - using unrevoked3. I already got to that part a looong time before I began struggling with the app2sd+ part
The next 15 hours or so I spent trying to figure out a way to actually get app2sd -without- having to install some (heavily) modified custom rom. It was extremely frustrating - mostly because there are so many different approaches it seems - but I could not make any of them work.
I got the ROM Manager, and created a 512MB ext partition, but it still didnt work.

References to init.d was something I kept coming across over and over, but I found it hard to grasp what it really was and how I should configure it (I have no experience with linux systems).

But, finally I decided I had wasted enough time and decied on this rom:
[ROM] [05/02] Pre-rooted Stock Froyo (2.29.405.5) [Optional mods]
... and it literally saved me from going nuts

This seemed to be the only approach (for me, anyway). I would still have HTC Sense (which I really like), but with a few extra options like app2sd, and the nice feature that allows you to wake the unit by pushing the optical tracker.

So all I really needed was unrevoked3 and that Pre-rooted Stock Froyo above. Nothing more. I cant imagine all the time I wasted figuring out this...

Anyway.... I now have a 1GB ext3 partition created for app2sd, and it works like a charm!

 

[DNick]

Can you clarify this for me, It hasn't clicked for me. Does the fat32 part, or the ext3(4) partition show up as the extra internal memory? Say I have a 8 gig card with a 1 gig ext3 partition. I'm I gaining a gig of space, or seven?

 

[shauny13]

ext3/4 is the extra internal memory, you are gaining 1gb

 

[DNick]

Is a certain ratio you need to keep when creating the partition? Because it seems that people always have like 7 and 1 or 4 and 512? Is that for a reason?

 

[Hadron]

Is a certain ratio you need to keep when creating the partition? Because it seems that people always have like 7 and 1 or 4 and 512? Is that for a reason?

No, there's no special ratio. I have a 16 GB card with a 512 MB ext3 partition. I also have more that 100 apps installed, and have used about 220 MB of the external partition. I figure that if I ever need more I can repartition the card.

Some of the HD ROMs recommend a larger partition, but as the FAQ says something between 512 MB and 1 GB will do for pretty well all purposes.

 

[andyknights]

Hi All

Sorry to continue posting on this thread but it seemed the best place to do so....

I've rooted, running GV1.4 and have run apps2sd. I've just read through all this thread (for the nth time!) and I can't see an answer to this specific issue (or at least, if the answer is there - I'm not linking them together!)

Once I ran a2SD in terminal emulator I had about 120MB free. This was a month or so ago I suppose - now it's gone down to 90 MB - this seems extreme given the reasons other people have been saying it will still go down. At this rate, I'll run out of space again (I don't dload THAT many apps, I don't think...)

But I noticed another post saying that they still had some stuff sitting on the SD card - so I went into manage apps and moved them back to internal - thinking this would place them into my ext3 partition - but my internal memory went down by another 20 odd MB down to 70MB free, or something....

And my setting in GV1.4 is set to place applications into internal memory - I believe this is right?

So more questions...

So, does this behaviour seems normal?
Is it safe/will it help to run the a2sd cachesd script again?
I'm using cache cleaner - does this do a good job of clearing caches?!
And, if this is all normal, what do I do when I reach 0MB free - again. I sorta thought a2sd was a solution that would last (generally) for as long as I needed it to do so, so I think I'm doing summat wrong somewhere....

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Rgds.
Andy

 

[SUroot]

- It can happen. Some apps force to SD such as Angry Birds. Just move back.

- Yeah run it, see what happens. Will not cause any harm

- No idea. never seen the point of cleaning cache.

- Memory will always go down. Sort the apps by size to see if something has an inordinate amount of cache. Also, every time you wipe or wipe dalvik, it defaults back to internal.

lets see where we are at after the a2sd cachesd. And the rate of data filling up does not neccessarily mean that rate will continue.

 

[andyknights]

Right - done it...

what we got...

A2SD Total 0.98 GB, Free 784 GB (so you can see I've not got THAT many apps installed)

Internal TOtal 148MB, Free 81MB

So the a2sd script only gave me back 2MB (it was at 79 before) - I exaggerated when I said I lost 20MB in my last post, it was only about 12MB...my bad.

So, not great....obvioiusly I don't need to worry about the 81MB, but it just seems to be going down a bit too quickly for my liking....though, of course, agree that past performance need not be an indication of future...

 

[andyknights]

Dammit, sorry, doubly post...

So what I don't get is why my internal free storage went down by 12 MB when all i did was move angry birds to 'internal' - which ought to be the partition, not 'real' internal...

 

[SUroot]

Yeah, when I move an app from SD to Phone, it stays around the same. I know some people have reported this though. I dont think it is something you neccessarily need to worry about at this stage.

You can also do a wipe and full titanium restore to see if anything changes, but thats quite drastic. Just keep an eye on it. not too close of an eye though, we dont want you to get obsessed

I actually have 2 solutions in place and never need to worry again. If you ever do get in trouble, I'll see you through it.

 

[andyknights]

Oh, to be in a position to never need worry again....!!

 

[SUroot]

What Rom are you on? If you use quick system info, let me know your stats for /system and /cache.

I'll let you know if the solution I use is worth while for you?

 

[andyknights]

ROM: GV 1.4

QSI:
System storage Total 250/Free 109
System cache Total 40MB/Free 8.2MB

Is that what you required?

TIA

(PS I saw a post earlier where you said "CBA TBH" - made me laugh) nice use of TLAs...

 

[SUroot]

Hahah.

Yes it is thanks.

So my methid could give you an extra 115MB of /data (internal storage) at this point. We take 100MB from system and 15MB from Cache and re-allocate it.

 

[andyknights]

How troublesome (marks out of 10) is it, compared to rooting (8/10), flashing ROMs (2/10), & a2sd (5/10) ?

No need to rush in, but might be interested when it's required and you have a convenient amount of time and patience! How do we donate to the SURoot's beer fund?

 

[SUroot]

The initial set up is quite easy as long as you follow the steps exactly.

The only thing is when flashing a new rom, before booting into it, you have to patch the boot of the rom so it knows about the partition layout.

 

[andyknights]

Will this be the same issue as updating the current ROM to a new version or just a new ROM? I don't think I'll be moving from one ROM to another that often....

 

[SUroot]

Everytime you flash any Rom, you have to patch it.

Roms all include boot.img so when flashing it over writes the previous boot.img so you have to patch it each time