Root Question regarding EXT2 on micro SDHC

[DeadlyFoez]

So I've got reppard's CM7.1 installed on my Optimus M and my micro SDHC has always been one whole FAT partition. I've read around and saw a few things about putting an EXT2 partition of around 512mb on my micro SDHC card and then put the rest as FAT or FAT32.

Is there any reason why I should do this? I just got a 16GB card in today and I'm putting it in but I am wondering if I should have an EXT2 partition and how big I should have it be and what is the added benefit of doing so?

Thank you all.

 

[Chckycrk]

So I've got reppard's CM7.1 installed on my Optimus M and my micro SDHC has always been one whole FAT partition. I've read around and saw a few things about putting an EXT2 partition of around 512mb on my micro SDHC card and then put the rest as FAT or FAT32.

Is there any reason why I should do this? I just got a 16GB card in today and I'm putting it in but I am wondering if I should have an EXT2 partition and how big I should have it be and what is the added benefit of doing so?

Thank you all.

Actually what you would want is an EXT-3 partition or higher because of Journaling capabilities.

The real added benefit of creating such partitions is for a feature called A2SD.

A2SD or (Apps2SD) gives you the ability to install applications on the SD card (along with all their data) to achieve faster startup times, be able to install more apps, backups, and to free up RAM space.

Personally I only go with about 500MB or so for an EXT-3 but it all depends on personal preference, what ROMS you plan to use, and how much music you have stored.

Heres a guide to creating an EXT-2 and upgrading to EXT-3 or EXT-4
Manually Partitioning Your SD Card

Hope this helps.
Please give thanks if it did.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

With my fat32 partition I can already move apps to my SD card and have them run from there. Does the A2SD do the same thing or is it even better than what I am already doing? What does is the linux-swap partition good for? My phone was able to run without it, so will having it make my phone perform better?

Thank you for your help

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Well, I got it done. I had to jump through a shitload of hoops to get it working correctly because I wanted to save everything from my previous micro SDHC card, but there were just some files that windows did not want to copy over for whatever reason. So I girst had to use norton ghost to cOpy the partion from my old card to my new one and make it 576mb smaller than it's max csize that it can create, and then use the adb shell and parted.

My only other issue is that I could not run the upgrade_fs command because it could not be found, so I had to use tune2fs instead.

So now I have a 512mb ext4 partition, a linux-swap 64mb partition, and the rest is fat32

Now how can I tell if A2SD is working and if even the ext4 and linux-swap partitions are being seen and used by my phone? Sorry, I'm still rather new to this.

Thanks again

 

[Chckycrk]

Im not 100 percent sure, but I believe A2SD saves to EXT partitions by default
Also, you can mount your SD card on windows, it will not display any EXT partitions, just the fat32.
If any application data is still there, then you need to configure your A2SD.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

From my research I found an app called App 2SD, but the end result is just one of the functions that my rom allows me to do in the App Manager. Come to think of it, even with my phone being stock I was still able to do the same thing. But before with my stock and before I reformatted my new micro SDhc card, I was still able to move apps to my sd card even when there was only a single fat32 partition. So how can I determine if the linux-swap and the ext4 partition are being used?

It's starting to look to me as if I wasted my time and effort (and my time trouble shooting) for no added benefit.

I was able to do all of the same things with my phone with only a single fat32 partition on my micro SDHC card before, and I see no added improvement in the custom partitioning. Am I missing something here?

 

[Chckycrk]

From my research I found an app called App 2SD, but the end result is just one of the functions that my rom allows me to do in the App Manager. Come to think of it, even with my phone being stock I was still able to do the same thing. But before with my stock and before I reformatted my new micro SDhc card, I was still able to move apps to my sd card even when there was only a single fat32 partition. So how can I determine if the linux-swap and the ext4 partition are being used?

It's starting to look to me as if I wasted my time and effort (and my time trouble shooting) for no added benefit.

I was able to do all of the same things with my phone with only a single fat32 partition on my micro SDHC card before, and I see no added improvement in the custom partitioning. Am I missing something here?

The benefit of A2SD all together, is to save internal space, and prevent your phone from slowing down, preserving your applications. There isnt a huge benefit of using EXT-4 over fat32 other than journaling and an added level of security.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

ok. Yeah, I already had a bunch of apps moved over to my SD card, so I was already using the A2SD feature when I had it as just fat32.

How can I tell if the linux-swap partition is being used at all? Because if it not being used then I want to delete it.

I'm probably going to delete the ext4 partition especially since A2SD is the only thing that uses it and I'm already using my fat32 for my apps, so I see it as pointless at this point.

I'd feel safer having everything as 1 partition instead of 3 partitions. I just see more room for error having 3.

Again, thank you for your help.

 

[Chckycrk]

ok. Yeah, I already had a bunch of apps moved over to my SD card, so I was already using the A2SD feature when I had it as just fat32.

How can I tell if the linux-swap partition is being used at all? Because if it not being used then I want to delete it.

I'm probably going to delete the ext4 partition especially since A2SD is the only thing that uses it and I'm already using my fat32 for my apps, so I see it as pointless at this point.

I'd feel safer having everything as 1 partition instead of 3 partitions. I just see more room for error having 3.

Again, thank you for your help.

Go ahead and delete the Swap partition until you come across a ROM that needs it.

And you're welcome.