Link2SD and you (a tutorial)

MacFett · June 28th, 2011, 03:38 PM

Warning: Do not link the market to SD using Link2SD.
I recently went back to my backup of my stock OS and I had moved virtually everything to SD using Link2SD, as such I have no market, no file explorer, nothing of any use. If I had the market I could download all of my apps again and get the phone working easily. If something were to happen to your SD card or one of the partitions you'd be in the same boat I am. The space recovered from moving the market isn't worth it. Just leave it where it is.

Since I can never find the tutorial I wrote, I am starting it's own thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacFett

I decided to give Link2sd one more try now that I have an 8gb sd card and I have read about the dalvik-cache that says in the internal memory after you move an app to sd.

I currently have over 100 apps (probably about 120) and 108mb of free space of internal memory. I decided to do a mini-tutorial to hopefully help anyone that wasn't getting Link2sd going.

Root your phone, I suggest this guide. [How-To] Root the LG Optimus V - Android Forums
Backup everything on the SD card, I suggest using Titanium Backup. Make sure there is a backup not on the SD card (like on your hard drive)
Connect your Optimus V to your computer and mount the SD card.
Resize the partition, I used Minitool Partition Wizard, leave 1-2gb of free space.
Create a new FAT32 partition with the free space, mark it as primary.
Disconnect your Optimus V and reboot it.
Download and install Link2sd if you have not done so already.
Run Link2sd, it will tell you it needs to reboot to mount the second partition.
Run Link2sd, it will list all apps it can move and tell you which ones are currently on the SD. It can't do anything with the apps on the SD already.
Inside Link2sd select an app to link to your sd.
- If your app is on your internal memory select Create Link.
- If your app is on the SD card select Manage. This will take you to the stock app management screen. Move the app back to the phone.
- Hit the back button to go back to Link2sd and now you can select Create Link.

After a few apps chances are your internal memory will be full. Go back to the main screen of Link2sd, open the menu and select More and then Quick Reboot. Once the phone has rebooted go back into Link2sd and open the menu and select Storage Info. Your internal Memory should be full of huge tracts of memory now.

MacFett · June 28th, 2011, 03:39 PM

I also wrote this post to help with the preparation of the uSD. It isn't really in tutorial format, I'll get around to that sometime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacFett

I started with my 2gb uSD and formatted it FAT32, apply.
Click move/resize partition and shrink the partition until there is ~512megs of free space. Click ok.

I now have my FAT32 partition and my unallocated disk space. Click on the grey bar, the unallocated space and click create partition. You'll get the warning that windows won't be able to read it blah blah blah. Hit OK. Now you'll have the window to set it as primary or logical. You want Primary. Then set the file system as FAT32 and make sure all of the free space is used. Click OK and you'll be back at the main window.

Click the apply button on the top, it is a big check mark. The Apply PEnding Operations Window will come up and show you of your progress. Then hopefully you'll get the All Operations Performed Successfully window.

If you are going to use a 2gb uSD you should use the smaller partition (~500mb) for your Link2SD partition and the larger (~1500mb partition) for your main uSD. I would personally recommend buying at least an 8gb uSD however.

benslgdroid · July 8th, 2011, 06:45 PM

I followed your steps and got to 90mb free space, added allot of apps and am down to 70mn. Why am I still losing space?

MacFett · July 8th, 2011, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benslgdroid

I followed your steps and got to 90mb free space, added allot of apps and am down to 70mn. Why am I still losing space?

Because the links take space on the internal memory. I currently have 57.43mb of space internal. Depending what I have installed I up to 90mb.

benslgdroid · July 8th, 2011, 09:30 PM

I found apps that didn't have library files made some and I re linked the library files and it freed allot. Also it doesn't seem to link the data. I have some apps that have big data files. But after linking the library files I went up to 106mb. I have about 100 user apps installed now.

Anamacha · August 5th, 2011, 09:54 PM

I noticed that Link2SD requires some sort of partition on the SD card. I didn't know how to do this, but I was in my Xionia Recovery CWMA 1.2518.4 earlier and noticed that it can partition the card. Is this the same sort of partition, and is that how I would create it?

thanks

AmishFury · August 5th, 2011, 10:58 PM

yes but... xionia formats the 2nd partition as ext

stock rom/kernel does not support it... you need to get custom or reformat the partition as FAT (or just partition the card on a PC and make sure both partitions are FAT to begin with)

daluvamann · August 5th, 2011, 11:01 PM

installed darktremor app2sd and a2sdgui and works much better than link2sd... plus does it automatically rather than having to individually link apps to sd... also moves dalvik cache...

MacFett · August 5th, 2011, 11:05 PM

You only have to move apps that were installed before Link2SD or Apps that automatically install to uSD. Anything that installs to the phone's internal memory automagically gets linked after install.

benslgdroid · August 5th, 2011, 11:55 PM

Found after flashing a new rom you need to go back into mini tool partition and reformat it to get link to work again or you will get a script error and it will not mint the partition.

jsthrower · August 7th, 2011, 08:48 PM

Mac When you make the new 2GB partition and make it the primary... then windows will no longer see the rest of your card when you mount it right. So you can no longer add files with your windows computer to your sdcard? Also what did you name the partition?

jsthrower · August 7th, 2011, 09:06 PM

The reviews say (darktremor app2sd and a2sdgui ) it always runs and is a battery hog..???

MacFett · August 7th, 2011, 10:09 PM

You want to format the card so it has one partition first. Then add the 2nd primary partition, it is this 2nd primary partition that won't be seen by windows. I can still copy files via USB to my phone or I can take the uSD out and transfer via SD drive.

If you are unsure about any of this make sure that you are using a new uSD or have a comeplete backup available in case you have to format it.

jsthrower · August 7th, 2011, 10:37 PM

I repartitioned the existing 16 GB card with all my existing apps and media with my easeus partition program by freeing up 2gb at the end of the card ,then creating a new primary fat 32 partition (did not name it). (I was thinking I could only have 1 primary partition...then I noticed my c drive has 3.) All programs I wanted to move and related files are now on the new partition. Looks like 2gb will be enough now that I have moved my apps and checked the remaining space on the new partition. Link2sd freed 30 MB of space on my internal memory. I only moved around 20 apps. Everything seems to work just as fast and I'm booting to the right partition when I connect to my computer. I have officially finished what I needed done. Thank you all that gave me advice.

jsthrower · August 11th, 2011, 10:13 PM

Mac...You were absolutely right about Link2SD...Before I rooted and installed the program I only had 36 meg on my internal memory left with most of my downloaded market apps (30) already moved to the sdcard. After installing Link2sd and linking all parts of those same (30) apps I was at 71 meg. I have since loaded another 40-45 apps letting Link2SD install them to the sdcard by default. I still have 63 meg of internal memory. I can't believe the difference it makes. The phone boot time is a little longer especially after installing new apps the first boot...but for what you gain it's well worth the extra 60 seconds from time to time, since I only reboot the phone when I load new apps. I haven't seen any real difference in the speed of the apps and haven't experienced any crashes either. In fact my longest waits on this phone is generally using the 3G network. Even if I decide one day to dump the phone service this is now one kick butt music/app player. Thanks for putting the thread out there.

MacFett · August 11th, 2011, 11:05 PM

Welcome. And as benslgdroid stated, after you move an app that doesn't have library files and go back you'll find that many do have library files and you can link those as well.

You can sort by largest lib size. (menu -> sort -> lib size) then link all of the libraries at once (menu -> multi-select -> select all the ones with large libs (Yes that is you Netflix!) -> menu -> create link
Then check all 3 options and press ok.
There is also a select all button instead of just linking those with big libs.

I've found that even when I don't run netflix if I link it's libs I can free up 5-10megs sometimes. Transformers G1 game was doing the same thing. I uninstalled it thinking it was my G1 sound board. I need to get my titanium back up of it out because that is a fun little game.

jsthrower · August 11th, 2011, 11:23 PM

Thanks for pointing out benslgdroid's statement...I had it set up to do all files to sdcard by default but I guess it didn't ..I just chose the top 8 apps with large libs and went from 63 meg back up to 72meg...GREAT TIP!!!

benslgdroid · August 11th, 2011, 11:52 PM

Every time you reboot it will move lib files back to phone at random so check after every reboot. I have not been able to figure out what causes this.

MacFett · August 12th, 2011, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benslgdroid

Every time you reboot it will move lib files back to phone at random so check after every reboot. I have not been able to figure out what causes this.

Maybe it is something we need to ask the dev, it could be a short coming of the app or the os itself. If it is the app it may be fixable. I just did a reboot and before the reboot I had 48% internal memory free, after the reboot I have 44% free. A 4% loss isn't as bad as I expected after reading this.

After relinking everything via multi-select -> select all I have 45% free. So it didn't seem to effect me much. When I did the reboot I used the quick boot within link2sd rather than power down and back on or power+volume^ so that could have effected it as well.

benslgdroid · August 12th, 2011, 01:26 AM

He has a thread but when I flashed I lost my bookmarks.

Edit: I located the thread on xda and left a comment. Now just waiting on a response.

smankins · August 12th, 2011, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benslgdroid

I found apps that didn't have library files made some and I re linked the library files and it freed allot. Also it doesn't seem to link the data. I have some apps that have big data files. But after linking the library files I went up to 106mb. I have about 100 user apps installed now.

Thanks for this tip - I have been using Link2SD for a while but have not gone back to look at previously linked apps. I freed up ~60 MB by doing this!

MacFett · August 12th, 2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smankins

Thanks for this tip - I have been using Link2SD for a while but have not gone back to look at previously linked apps. I freed up ~60 MB by doing this!

If you look up a few posts I explain how to link all of your libs at once if you haven't figured it out yourself.

birdgofly · August 23rd, 2011, 12:50 AM

So my phone sometimes randomly crashes and then when I try to reboot it gets stuck on the boot screen.. sometimes I can just keep taking out the battery and trying to reboot until it works again. This last time I downloaded a couple of apps and it crashed, and now it gets stuck on the boot screen and won't load at all unless I take the memory card out, and then everything is all screwed up cause I have link2sd, and I don't know what's wrong or how to fix it! Anyone here know what it could be? Like.. is it a link2sd thing, or maybe some reaction btw link2sd and my rom? Maybe my sd card is a POS? Any suggestions or information would be appreciated! Thank you

LG Optimus V
Rooted; Harmonia rom (1.3?)
SD card partitioned, both FAT32
almost everything linked w/ link2sd

If there is any other important information you need to know please ask!

smankins · August 23rd, 2011, 12:56 AM

The only thing I can offer is that I have used Link2SD for a few months or longer and don't experience those scenarios. I have had the phone reboot itself in the past but I don't feel it was due to Link2SD. I would be more inclined to try changing your ROM and see if that fixes some or all of the problems.

benslgdroid · August 23rd, 2011, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by birdgofly

So my phone sometimes randomly crashes and then when I try to reboot it gets stuck on the boot screen.. sometimes I can just keep taking out the battery and trying to reboot until it works again. This last time I downloaded a couple of apps and it crashed, and now it gets stuck on the boot screen and won't load at all unless I take the memory card out, and then everything is all screwed up cause I have link2sd, and I don't know what's wrong or how to fix it! Anyone here know what it could be? Like.. is it a link2sd thing, or maybe some reaction btw link2sd and my rom? Maybe my sd card is a POS? Any suggestions or information would be appreciated! Thank you

LG Optimus V
Rooted; Harmonia rom (1.3?)
SD card partitioned, both FAT32
almost everything linked w/ link2sd

If there is any other important information you need to know please ask!

Backup all your apps and reflash also update to 1.3.1 or 1.5. I had that exact combination with no issues. You will need to reformat your partition on your desktop since the recoveries don't do fat32 which makes no sense. If after a fresh format flash and make sure harmonia is up to date it still gives you issues it may be a faulty card since link2sd and harmonia are both very stable.

benslgdroid · August 24th, 2011, 01:27 AM

Link2sd was just updated to include a new menu item "relink library files"
Menu>more>relink library files.
newest version is 1.8

jsthrower · August 25th, 2011, 02:00 AM

Mac. sometimes when I download an app i get an error on install...could not install on usb or sdcard. .. and it doesn't install. I have set link2sd to not auto install to card and still get the message. Tried rebooting the phone with auto turned off ,,, same error. It's like if it can't go to the card then it won't install on the phone instead or give me the option. Never tells me why exactly... I still have 60 meg available on the internal storage so I don't see that as an issue. Any ideas?

benslgdroid · August 25th, 2011, 02:43 AM

If your on iho there is currently some issues with the market that are being worked on. If its not set to auto then link is not running during your installation so its an issue with your market or rom.

KOLIO · August 25th, 2011, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benslgdroid

Every time you reboot it will move lib files back to phone at random so check after every reboot. I have not been able to figure out what causes this.

It's a known issue,the developer is aware of it.This is stated in the app description/information in the ANDROID MARKET.

benslgdroid · August 25th, 2011, 03:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KOLIO

It's a known issue,the developer is aware of it.This is stated in the app description/information in the ANDROID MARKET.

We've addressed that already.

MacFett · August 25th, 2011, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsthrower

Mac. sometimes when I download an app i get an error on install...could not install on usb or sdcard.

Is there room on the card? Some apps will automagically install to SD if they are large (Olive Office does this).

jsthrower · August 25th, 2011, 09:33 AM

Mac... yeap there is plenty of room I made a 2 gb partition and have only used 500meg so far. Thats the main reason why I confused about this issue. There is plenty of room everywhere. I'll post a few of the apps I'm having problems with when I get home from work.

MacFett · August 25th, 2011, 11:51 AM

not on the link2sd partition, but the main SD partition. When the phone installs to SD it uses the regular partition.

drthomasho · August 25th, 2011, 06:49 PM

I also want to upgrade to a 16GB microSD from the stock 2GB so HOW do I incorporate it into this process. In other words, HOW do I move my apps & data from the 2GB to the 16GB while rooting & linking?

benslgdroid · August 25th, 2011, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drthomasho

I also want to upgrade to a 16GB microSD from the stock 2GB so HOW do I incorporate it into this process. In other words, HOW do I move my apps & data from the 2GB to the 16GB while rooting & linking?

Backup with titanium backup then follow all the steps then restore with titanium backup. you may need to uninstall your apps after you've made a backup of them.

jsthrower · August 26th, 2011, 01:52 AM

Yeah Mac, there is 5 gig of space left on the sd partition, so space is no problem. I heading to Georgia to visit the family so I might have to pick this back up later. thanks.

neut6o1 · August 27th, 2011, 03:50 PM

I just got an 8GB card to replace my 2GB card. Is there a way to mount the second partition in windows to copy the contents onto my hard drive and then copy that onto a new second partition on the 8GB card? Just hoping to avoid having to do titanium backups and uninstalling a bunch of my apps since I have already downloaded something like 80 apps.

MacFett · August 27th, 2011, 09:54 PM

I am getting ready to migrate to a 16gb (purchased it when I was going to get a Triumph and have since decided to stay with the OpV for now) and just planned on moving as many to the phone as I can and then using Titanium Backup for the rest.

I haven't tried mounting the 2nd partition in windows, in fact my OpV hasn't been connected to my computer since I first setup Link2SD.

Frozen_Droid · August 28th, 2011, 12:37 AM

Is this worth it on a 2gb sd card that came with the V?

Kinda confused how to do it if so, I downloaded the application, turned on USB mass storage, and then immediately went to resize(was I supposed to format??) and it won;t let me do jack squat.

benslgdroid · August 28th, 2011, 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frozen_Droid

Is this worth it on a 2gb sd card that came with the V?

Kinda confused how to do it if so, I downloaded the application, turned on USB mass storage, and then immediately went to resize(was I supposed to format??) and it won;t let me do jack squat.

That is not going to give you much room. Can you see the card on the program? there had been reports of the card included it's cheap and faulty, I had allot of issues with it and causing reboots and what not even in other phones.

Frozen_Droid · August 28th, 2011, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benslgdroid

That is not going to give you much room. Can you see the card on the program? there had been reports of the card included it's cheap and faulty, I had allot of issues with it and causing reboots and what not even in other phones.

any recommendation on what I should get?

MacFett · August 28th, 2011, 08:24 AM

2gb is the size suggested for the second partition. I would suggest at least a 4gb, but a 8gb would be better. They can usually be found for around $13, check out Newegg.com.

Once you have a new card read the tutorial, I guide you through the steps needed to get link2sd working.

Frozen_Droid · August 28th, 2011, 01:24 PM

Any reason why it wouldn't work on the 2gb sd card it came with?

benslgdroid · August 28th, 2011, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frozen_Droid

Any reason why it wouldn't work on the 2gb sd card it came with?

It would but you wouldn't have much room for other things such as photos and ringtones just fallow the instructions in the first post and make the partition probably about 600mb. Buy then you won't have much room on the card for other things like I said. Also remember if your going to flash backups take around 1gb. That will leave you with no room at all.

matt832 · September 1st, 2011, 02:53 PM

Issues... I rooted my phone and installed Link2SD and installed Minitool Partition Wizard on my computer. I'm still using my 2G card, using that to experiment on. I created a small Primary partition, 258m, and set it as active.

However when I set it to active the other partition is not active, and Link2SD want2 primary partitions active. How do I achieve this?

I'm tired of running out of space after a few text messages and getting memory full text rejected messages. Right now Link2 shows 11% internal memory available, so I need to get this to work.

benslgdroid · September 1st, 2011, 04:19 PM

What is it telling you. If there's a problem it is good at telling you what it is. If I know exactly what it says I can help you better.

benslgdroid · September 1st, 2011, 04:25 PM

What should happen is it will ask you the partition when you load the app, of your on stock or a froyo ROM you select fat 32. then it will tell you to reboot if it mounted properly. You reboot and you should then be able to link. If it is saying its not primary then go back into the partition program select the partition you made under type make sure it says primary then select apply changes. disconnect your phone, reboot start link select fat 32 it will ask to reboot then it should work.

matt832 · September 1st, 2011, 04:35 PM

It's telling me I only have one active partition. In Minitool it will flip the active from one to the other but I can't get both listed as Primary and active...

MacFett · September 1st, 2011, 07:15 PM

You need them both listed as Primary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacFett

I started with my 2gb uSD and formatted it FAT32, apply.
Click move/resize partition and shrink the partition until there is ~512megs of free space. Click ok.

I now have my FAT32 partition and my unallocated disk space. Click on the grey bar, the unallocated space and click create partition. You'll get the warning that windows won't be able to read it blah blah blah. Hit OK. Now you'll have the window to set it as primary or logical. You want Primary. Then set the file system as FAT32 and make sure all of the free space is used. Click OK and you'll be back at the main window.

Click the apply button on the top, it is a big check mark. The Apply PEnding Operations Window will come up and show you of your progress. Then hopefully you'll get the All Operations Performed Successfully window.

Diablo2k · September 3rd, 2011, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsthrower

I repartitioned the existing 16 GB card with all my existing apps and media with my easeus partition program by freeing up 2gb at the end of the card ,then creating a new primary fat 32 partition (did not name it). (I was thinking I could only have 1 primary partition...then I noticed my c drive has 3.) All programs I wanted to move and related files are now on the new partition. Looks like 2gb will be enough now that I have moved my apps and checked the remaining space on the new partition. Link2sd freed 30 MB of space on my internal memory. I only moved around 20 apps. Everything seems to work just as fast and I'm booting to the right partition when I connect to my computer. I have officially finished what I needed done. Thank you all that gave me advice.

Thanks, I have been trying to find something that could manage the uSD partitions. Easeus partition program did it very easily, almost to easy considering I have been trying to find something for 2 months and all I could find was instructions for working in Linux.

I will be getting a Motorola Triumph next week and the first thing I am doing is installing Link2SD, well second thing actually, I need to root the phone first.