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Root Installation unsuccessful - insufficient storage

B

bingobango

Well-Known Member
OK My phone is rooted, has ext3 partition and has apps2sd+ - but how can I be running out of memory?

From quick system info:
SD Card storage: Total 13.88GB, Free 2.45GB
A2SD storage: Total 0.98 GB, Free: 752 MB
Internal Storage Total 148MB, Free 10.11MB
System Storage: Total 250MB, Free 22.44MB
System Cache Total 40MB, Free 33.89MB

Is there anything I can do here other than uninsatlling apps, clearing cache etc (which I have been doing anyway - but the memory seems to go down anyway).

Thanks
 
What ROM, and if you know, what a2sd script are you using?

Just looking at the stats my guess is that you have your Dalvik cache in internal storage. To move this to ext requires different things in different ROMs. For example, GingerVillain and I think Miui use DarkTremor a2sd, in which case open a terminal emulator, type "su", return, then "a2sd cachesd" and return (all without quotes). For Redux and (I think) Oxygen you want to flash an add-on to move the Dalvik.

Visit your ROM's thread at xda and read the first 2 posts - it's probably in there.
 
You're using the a2sd version? I think you must be because of the amount of /system storage you are using (too much for it to be the data++ version I think). That's odd though, because I thought LeeDroid moved dalvik automatically. How many apps do you have installed?

You could try just completely clearing app caches (try 1tap cleaner from the market), and wiping dalvik (boot into recovery, go into advanced options, select wipe dalvik cache from there). Just as a general clean up, see whether it helps.
 
I don't have many apps installed. I uninstalled a couple and cleared the cache, and rebooted and then cleared the dalvik cache.

Took about 10 mins to reboot and I now have 21 mb free.

Is this enough or is there something I need to do, increasing partition sizes or anything?
 
Increasing ext partition size won't help - you've got plenty of space there.

Increasing the /data partition size would, but for that you'll need to be S-Off and to use a different ROM (because you'll need to shrink /system to expand /data).

Your free space does seem low if you don't have many apps (how many is "not many" though?). That's why I suspected dalvik might be internal, but the little I know about LeeDroid would suggest that isn't likely.

Have you tried checking whether any apps are using anomalous amounts of data? Quick System Info lets you list apps ordered by data size, which should help spot if there is anything crazy.
 
Data++ version gives you yet more internal memory for app installation than A2SD+ version, however, it is a little trickier to both flash and customize. As it does not move dalvik cache to SD, unlike A2SD+, dalvik cache still occupies a considerable amount of internal storage. This makes the system marginally quicker than A2SD+, at the expense of available internal memory and placing a cap on the total volume of installable apps (which is still considerably higher than in the A2SD+ version). Furthermore, it can be moved to sd-ext as well, freeing more memory still (see subsection "Things to know if using Data++" below, item 5).
Click to expand...

From Here:

LeeDroid BRAVO GB 3.0.x ALTERNATIVE FAQ - xda-developers

So the a2sd version DOES move Dalvik but the Data++ does not.
 
Using quick system info:

On the applications tab I have 192 applications. 155 are system and 37 are user applications.

Mail application is the biggest with 23.18 MB (20MB is data, no option to clear data)
CoPilot is 22.73MB (9MB is data)
Maps is 13.33MB (2MB is data)
Dolphin Browser HD is 11.26MB (8MB is data)
Facebook is 10.36MB (5MB is data)
Contacts Storage 7.59MB (6MB is data)
Runkeeper 7.59MB (6.5MB is data)
Movies 6.57MB (5MB is data)

I take it clearing data is a bad idea?

I also assume all these should be on the sd card, and there is no need to 'move to sd card' as they should already be there?
 
In most cases you should actually have them on "phone" - that will put them on the ext partition.

However, since you are running a GB ROM and short of space you could try moving some of them between phone and SD to see whether it helps - you can always move back to phone if it does not. The reason is that on GB the move to sd (Google version, rather than a2sd+) moves the app's lib directory, which otherwise remains on internal storage. Some apps have a large object library, and for those you can save space by moving to SD google style. Of those listed there, CoPilot might be like this (I don't know that app) and Maps probably is. Adobe FlashPlayer is another one, Aldiko 2.0 if you have it. Just try a few and see.

Clearing data does what it says, so if the app has data you want to keep (e.g. your contacts!) then you don't want to clear it.
 
I have given up - I am down to 15MB again and I have no idea why.

I should have more memory than this! Is there anything else I can do - Like restore a backup but wipe something before I do?

Any way to check my partition or anything?
 
QSI was reporting that you'd used about 220-230MB of your partition, so I think that is working.

As I said above, you might gain by moving some apps to SD - it's generally not recommended because it's splitting the apps between 3 places, so messy, but that's largely an aesthetic argument. You should try apps where the app itself us large, rather than the data size. Do it one at a time and check whether your space increases - if not, put it back on phone.

You could try backing everything up and doing a factory reset, then restore apps and data you want (as you would when changing ROMs, except it is safe to restore settings). Might help, no promises as I don't know why you have so little space.

If I had your phone in my hand I'd probably use a terminal, or Astro, Root Explorer or ES file explorer in root mode to investigate what is actually in your /data partition. Can't remember what they'll let you see when S-On though.
 
do you use titanium backup to backup and restore apps and data?

I have astro but I'm not sure where to look - anywhere but the sd card?

edit - found the /data partition - there is 17MB free out of a total 147MB

It says the directory is empty though when you go inside the folder...
 
I use Ti for most backups, though I use MyBackup for call logs & messages just for simplicity.

As for browsing /data, I'd forgotten that Astro didn't work - sorry. ES File Explorer is free though, and does work.
 
Have you tried sms backup+ yet Hadron? I love it. It automatically uploads each of my sent and received SMS in real time to gmail, under an sms label. That way I can browse them on my PC too. And you can restore them too.
 
Hadron said:
However, since you are running a GB ROM and short of space you could try moving some of them between phone and SD to see whether it helps - you can always move back to phone if it does not. The reason is that on GB the move to sd (Google version, rather than a2sd+) moves the app's lib directory, which otherwise remains on internal storage. Some apps have a large object library, and for those you can save space by moving to SD google style. Of those listed there, CoPilot might be like this (I don't know that app) and Maps probably is. Adobe FlashPlayer is another one, Aldiko 2.0 if you have it. Just try a few and see.
Click to expand...

I'm using Copilot and the lib size is 0MB, so it would not help with GB A2SD.
Market also has a 0MB lib size, so that doesn't help either.
Adobe Flashplayer is on the other hand has about 8MB lib size.

I still prefer a2sd+ setup, because you can have lib files to be moved manually, also have dex files moved manually, and you don't have the widget SD card issue.
 
ok I installed root explorer and can now navigate and see the files in the data folder on the partition.

Is there anything I should be looking for in particular that can be deleted? I noticed that there were a lot of apk files in the app folder inside the data folder on the ext partition. Can these apk's be deleted or are they the actual programs themselves? I was under the impression that they were just like installation .exes (like on a PC) and so could be deleted after the program was installed. But maybe I'm mistaken?
 
Totally mistaken.

PC, you download an .exe which creates registry entries and another .exe that is the application. The original .exe can go as a new .exe now exists in c:\program files

Android, you download an .apk which creates libraries, dalvik cache and an .apk that is the application. The original apk is in .cache/download (if downloaded by the market) but the application itself is in /data/app/

If you use a2sd+, this links /sd-ext/data/app/ too /data/app/ so what you see in one is the same as what you see in the other. A2sd+ links the 2 directories as apps must be in /data/app/ to function but android sees the actual app in /sd-ext/data/app/ as /data/app/
 
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