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Root [MetroPCS] [MOD] [Beta] SdCard Memory Hack

This hack is so crazy I honestly couldn't tell ya.

If you get this working again could you tell me how you did it step by step?

I just can't get it to work this time.

I think my card isn't formatted correctly using Aparted or something.
 
ok i want to get this going again for you guys is anyone around for testing? someone hop onto irc

Well. No one came to help test, but thats ok i think ive got it going now. Check op for link.
 
pressy4pie said:
ok i want to get this going again for you guys is anyone around for testing? someone hop onto irc

Well. No one came to help test, but thats ok i think ive got it going now. Check op for link.
Click to expand...

Aww, wish I had known....been up all night!

I just factory reset and tried again, but now a message pops up saying cannot connect to pressy4pie.com.
 
RockyMountain said:
OK, now I'm in the twilight zone. :-)

Using CWM recovery (as installed by F6Utilities2), I hit "wipe data/factory reset", and eventually rebooted it when the wipe was done.

Upon reboot, it once again did the Android is upgrading / Optimizing application <n> of 108 song and dance. And when it finally got booted, it was back to its normal self as though there had been no wipe -- SDcard hack still intact, and ALL APPS STILL INTACT.

With no re-installing, and certainly no recovery from backup, everything is still there.

I'm guessing this is because with the SD Hack, the CWM "wipe data / factory reset" is de-fanged, because it's only wiping the _normal_ data location, not the new ext4-partition-based one. Perhaps I need to also format the sdcard ext4 partition?? Or to somehow mount it under CWM before I hit "wipe data / factory reset"?
Click to expand...

Ok, the twilight zone mystery deepens further....

My phone STILL does the "Android is Upgrading, Optimizing application n of m" thing at every startup, despite the fact that I did all of the following:

1. Reinstalled stock recovery
2. Reflashed stock 10i from the kdz file. Wiped data/cache/dalvik.
3. Left the Sdcard partitioned with fat32 and ext4 partitions, but re-formatted the partitions for a clean start.
4. Followed GameTheory's instructions to root & install CWM recovery.
5. Installed OTA Rootkeeper, then upgraded to 12b (via OTA).
6. Followed GameTheory's instructions to debloat.
7. Followed GameTheory's instructions on Link2SD.
I did not do pressy4pie's Sdcard Hack, because he seems to
now be recommending Link2SD instead -- see updates to the
opening post of this thread.
8. Installed a clean gapps.
9. Reinstalled all my apps (from Play store, NOT from backup),
using Link2SD after almost every one to prevent itne internal
storage from overflowing.

Absolutely nothing was restored from backup at any point. I would have expected this phone to now be pristine rooted/CWM'd/Links2SDed 12b. I can't immagine why it still has this quirk ("Optimizing" every time you restart it). But it does!

Subsequent cache and dalvik flushes don't help, either. Very mysterious!

(Since this problem would appear to be totally unrelated to the original Sdcard Hack, I should probably move this to a different thread. Just thought I'd mention it here first, in case anybody recognises the problem?)
 
RockyMountain said:
Ok, the twilight zone mystery deepens further....

My phone STILL does the "Android is Upgrading, Optimizing application n of m" thing at every startup, despite the fact that I did all of the following:

1. Reinstalled stock recovery
2. Reflashed stock 10i from the kdz file. Wiped data/cache/dalvik.
3. Left the Sdcard partitioned with fat32 and ext4 partitions, but re-formatted the partitions for a clean start.
4. Followed GameTheory's instructions to root & install CWM recovery.
5. Installed OTA Rootkeeper, then upgraded to 12b (via OTA).
6. Followed GameTheory's instructions to debloat.
7. Followed GameTheory's instructions on Link2SD.
I did not do pressy4pie's Sdcard Hack, because he seems to
now be recommending Link2SD instead -- see updates to the
opening post of this thread.
8. Installed a clean gapps.
9. Reinstalled all my apps (from Play store, NOT from backup),
using Link2SD after almost every one to prevent itne internal
storage from overflowing.

Absolutely nothing was restored from backup at any point. I would have expected this phone to now be pristine rooted/CWM'd/Links2SDed 12b. I can't immagine why it still has this quirk ("Optimizing" every time you restart it). But it does!

Subsequent cache and dalvik flushes don't help, either. Very mysterious!

(Since this problem would appear to be totally unrelated to the original Sdcard Hack, I should probably move this to a different thread. Just thought I'd mention it here first, in case anybody recognises the problem?)
Click to expand...

Could there be a hidden partition somewhere, a recovery partition in the phone that is corrupted or perhaps something is being downloaded by kdz?

I have wiped everything imaginable from within recovery before kdz, but still end up with bits of leftover data at some point somewhere. I do not have the problems you have just things aren't erased completely and weird things are happening and now when I click to download the hack on first page and use it, it installs but does nothing but say internet connection required and cannot connect to www.pressy4pie.com.

When I install a backed up F6Utilities2 downloaded from the very same "HERE" link, it installs fine and doesn't pop that connection message.

Straaaaaange!

Doo doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo!
 
pressy4pie said:
Are you connected to the internet?
Click to expand...

Yes, I was browsing, downloading etc.

Funny thing is, I went into your recovery and mounted system and then upon reboot Play Store wouldn't download anything and kept popping errors so I installed gapps but it completely broke Play Store and had to download Play Store apk which fixed Play Store but other things were still not working quite right...I then mounted and wiped everything possible in recovery and then did kdz yet again. Still got that pressy4pie message afterwards when downloading from link on first page.

Edit: Not happening this morning when I download and install from the link however.

This afternoon I clicked the original link and then downloaded and installed it once again but this time there was no connection to pressy4pie error message.

I just don't understand any of this craziness!
 
goitalone said:
by the way I also made sure nothing was restored to the phone via backup/restore...didn't even log into my Gmail account
Click to expand...







goitalone said:
Yes, I was browsing, downloading etc.

Funny thing is, I went into your recovery and mounted system and then upon reboot Play Store wouldn't download anything and kept popping errors so I installed gapps but it completely broke Play Store and had to download Play Store apk which fixed Play Store but other things were still not working quite right...I then mounted and wiped everything possible in recovery and then did kdz yet again. Still got that pressy4pie message afterwards when downloading from link on first page.

Edit: Not happening this morning when I download and install from the link however.

This afternoon I clicked the original link and then downloaded and installed it once again but this time there was no connection to pressy4pie error message.

I just don't understand any of this craziness!
Click to expand...

Aw I think I know what i did. I'll fix it tomorrow
 
RockyMountain said:
Ok, the twilight zone mystery deepens further....

My phone STILL does the "Android is Upgrading, Optimizing application n of m" thing at every startup, despite the fact that I did all of the following:

BLAH-BLAH deleted for brevity.
Click to expand...

OK, I have a theory. Can't prove it, but this is what I now think...

I think Android is just going through routine steps that are part of every normal boot-up. It's behavior is really no different than before. What has changed is that (a) because of the use of SDcard in lieu of internal storage, the sequence takes longer, and (b) somehow my phone got into a mode where it displays the progress of the sequence, whereas previously it used to display a boot animation.

So, I went through all my apps with links2SD, and un-linked just their Dalvik caches (but kept everything else still linked to SD). This sped up the "Optimizing" from about 6+ minutes to under 2 minutes, yet still leaves plenty of free space on the internal storage. It's entirely possible that in the old pre-SDcard days, I waited just as long for a slow boot animation, and that the same stuff was still going on behind the scenes.

At any rate, now that it's down to less than 2 minutes, this is definitely not a problem I am worried about anymore.
 
So if we want to go back to stock is it safe to just use KDZ to revert back to stock or do I need to first flash a kernel than KDZ back to stock?
 
yazyazoo said:
So if we want to go back to stock is it safe to just use KDZ to revert back to stock or do I need to first flash a kernel than KDZ back to stock?
Click to expand...

All you have to do is kdz to revert back to complete stock. The kdz will flash stock kernel and recovery along with everything else.
 
GameTheory said:
All you have to do is kdz to revert back to complete stock. The kdz will flash stock kernel and recovery along with everything else.
Click to expand...

I flashed kdz 10i stock and my phone stayed rooted. I was trying to use OTA rootkeeper and update to 12b firmware update. However I noticed that it wouldn't take any update. I had used FOTA.apk which kills the update notification I was getting before.

Also I used your debloater and noticed after the kdz update that those apps are still missing.

I also still had CWM as recovery.

Is it normal after KDZ to stay rooted, still block OTA updates, and missing the debloated apps? Also should kdz replace cwm with stock recovery?

It's weird almost as if it only reinstalled stock partially.
 
I read through this entire thread but I'm still confused. Does this hack only work on 10i or 12b as well? I'm on 12b rooted with towelroot(v1) and it doesn't seem to work. My internal memory is still stock size.
 
sur00t said:
I read through this entire thread but I'm still confused. Does this hack only work on 10i or 12b as well? I'm on 12b rooted with towelroot(v1) and it doesn't seem to work. My internal memory is still stock size.
Click to expand...

FWIW, My phone has rooted 12B, and I was able to get this hack working without any special tricks. Used a 32GB SD, with 24GB vfat and 8GB ext4. The order of the partitions on the SD matters! Also, I don't recall if it was explicitly required, but I did a factory data reset before attempting the hack. I cold-installed everything after the hack, rather than relying on a backup. And finally, my start-up each time I turn the phone on is now much slower than before, but that's a small price to pay for having usable storage.

I no longer use this hack, BTW. At the advice of pressy4pie in an update to the original posting, I now use Link2SD instead -- which works great but has the same slow startup issue.
 
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