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Root Partitions in TWRP

Hook

Hook

Ever since DU... ;-)
Okay, late to the game here. Tried searching Google, here and XDA and not finding much on-point.

So when I go to do a Nandroid back-up in TWRP, I suddenly see a whole bunch more choices than I used to. I was relieved to see everything looked the same in advanced wipe, so I suspect it doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but under back-up there was, aside from the usual boot, system, data, cache and efs, system image, vendor, vendor image and recovery. The latter one I can figure out. What exactly are these others (I noticed DU for Angler has vendor files). Is there anything special I need to know about them? Is there a guide somewhere?

I backed up everything and then backed up the vendor partitions separately (and efs, of course), then did a normal boot-system-data backup.

Thanks!
 
Hey @Hook, I'm guessing you mean these 7 billion (:p) partitions:


recovery, cache, system, userdata are normal and familiar, of course
modem, modemst1, modemst2 are radio (cell or wifi) related (treat as your EFS partitions?)
sbl1, sbl1bak would be related to the secondary bootloader
tz, tzbak would be trust zone related (device/bootloader security)
aboot, abootbak is the final bootloader (I believe)
boot primary boot image
frp factory reset protection

That leaves these partitions for us to speculate on:

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
3 182272 182463 98304 0700 sdi
5 184512 185511 500K 0700 rpm
6 185512 186535 512K 0700 hyp
7 186536 186791 128K 0700 pmic
8 186792 188839 1024K 0700 DDR
9 188840 189095 128K 0700 sec
11 197856 198111 128K 0700 pmicbak
14 202208 203207 500K 0700 rpmbak
15 203208 204231 512K 0700 hypbak
17 212992 212993 1024 0700 devinfo
18 229376 237567 4096K 0700 fsg
19 245760 245761 1024 0700 limits
22 278528 279039 256K 0700 apdp
23 279040 279551 256K 0700 msadp
24 279552 280063 256K 0700 keymaster
25 280064 280575 256K 0700 cmnlib
26 280576 281087 256K 0700 keymasterbak
27 281088 281599 256K 0700 cmnlibbak
28 281600 281601 1024 0700 dpo
29 281602 281603 1024 0700 fsc
30 281604 281619 8192 0700 ssd
31 281620 294911 6646K 0700 oeminfo
32 294912 311295 8192K 0700 persist
33 311296 344063 16.0M 0700 metadata
36 475136 606207 64.0M 0700 oem
37 606208 1015807 200M 0700 vendor
39 1220608 1222655 1024K 0700 misc
40 1222656 1223679 512K 0700 keystore
42 1224704 1225703 500K 0700 persistent​

We can guess (speculate) what might be in some of these based on the names, but whether or not they're key and necessary for restoring from a Nandroid is unclear...

I'd probably backup as many as you can for a special, one-off backup that you'd keep in a safe place in case you needed it.

Then, just do the normal Nandroid backups that you would do when doing ROM flashing operations.

I've got other Nexus devices that also have a ton of partitions--I'm guessing they (Huawei) have just split-off / separated some of the functions / purposes into their own areas for better management / organization.

Dunno for sure, though :) ;).
 
I'm not sure. What I'm looking at is what pops up in Backup in TWRP. There you are given the opportunity to back up all or any of the following:

  • Boot
  • System
  • System Image
  • Vendor
  • Vendor Image
  • Data
  • Cache
  • Recovery
  • EFS

I've never seen SystemImage (is that System + boot?), before, nor those Vendor things. I'm most curious about them. Are these exclusive to the 6p?

Just curious.
 
Re. the vendor partition (via http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=65136372&postcount=7):


"No proprietary binaries are needed for Volantis. The proprietary vendor binaries are on a separate 'vendor' partition."
​
That's of course for and in reference to the Nexus 9, but should apply to the 6P, too.

And then, this (from the same thread where I got the above link:


Q: What is the vendor.img/vendor.zip? (5X and 6P only)
A: The vendor partition is new to Nexus phones with the 5X and 6P. Previous devices had the vendor files (proprietary binaries and drivers) within the system partition (/system/vendor); on these devices, they now have it in their own partition (/vendor). If this is not up to date, you will get an error message and need to flash the latest one so your phone continues to work properly. Beans has made this a TWRP flashable file available in the OP of the 5X and 6P threads (also linked below) so you do not have to fastboot it.​

And this heads-up:

 
I would guess it actually backs up the system and vendor as the .img that you typically flash with fastboot, but ive never actually tried it (or even seen that option - i've been on stock rooted nearly the entire time this device has been out, so I don't really do nandroid backups because I just reflash the stock system/boot image if things get funky.)
 
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