Root Apps2SD

[jhewit22]

I'm a newly rooted user (used the one-click apk)...about 3 minutes ago!

I installed Wireless Tether as a test to prove to myself that I am actually rooted, and it worked!

Before I rooted, I read a bunch of things and kept seeing "Apps2sd" all over the place...what is this all about? How do I do it? I'm not running a custom rom yet, want to take baby steps! Can I use it to save space on my phone without having a custom rom installed?

Thanks!

 

[doogald]

Before I rooted, I read a bunch of things and kept seeing "Apps2sd" all over the place...what is this all about? How do I do it? I'm not running a custom rom yet, want to take baby steps! Can I use it to save space on my phone without having a custom rom installed?

Apps2sd is shorthand for Applictaions to SD card. There are two ways that this is done, at least for the Eris. For Froyo ROMs, by design, Froyo supports having applications installed to the SD card, right alongside all of your data, such as your photos. There are some limitations to this: first, because the SD card is mounted toward the end of the boot process, you cannot have a launcher app, or a widget that displays on the home screen, run well from the SD card; second, if you mount your SD card to your computer when you connect via cable, by design the SD card is dismounted from your phone and it will no longer have access to any apps on the SD card until you remount the card when you disconnect from your PC.

The second way is done by many (if not most) 2.1 custom ROMs for the Eris. Using this method, you first re-partition your SD card to set aside a small portion, which has the Linux ext3 partition type installed. With this method, you can move all (or most, depending on the ROM) of your apps to this partition on your SD card. An advantage compared with the Froyo method is that this small partition is always mounted to the phone, so you will always have access to your apps, and it is mounted early in the boot process.

The main reason why you would do this is because your phone lacks the storage space to install all of your applications. Installing to SD gives a much larger storage area for apps.

All that said, what I'd say the most popular 2.1 ROMs these days - xtrROM and xtrSENSE - use a brilliant method to move some files out of the area of storage where your apps are typically installed, giving far more space for apps and no need to use apps2sd.

 

[jhewit22]

Thank you very much, I'll delete a few unnecessary apps that I have to create some more space on my phone until I am brave enough to install a custom rom, maybe I can convince myself to use xtrROM or xtrSENSE.

Thanks again!

 

[scary alien]

Thank you very much, I'll delete a few unnecessary apps that I have to create some more space on my phone until I am brave enough to install a custom rom, maybe I can convince myself to use xtrROM or xtrSENSE.

Thanks again!

jhewit22,

Just make sure you make/take a Nandroid backup (if you haven't already) before you delete anything...just want you to be safe and be able to recovery should anything go awry.

Cheers!

 

[jhewit22]

I'm looking up how to do a nandroid backup right now!

 

[scary alien]

I'm looking up how to do a nandroid backup right now!

Easy-peasy: first part of this awesome post: http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/127861-universal-eris-root-dummies.html#post1186824

Pictures and details .

Cheers!

 

[scary alien]

Thank you very much, I'll delete a few unnecessary apps that I have to create some more space on my phone until I am brave enough to install a custom rom, maybe I can convince myself to use xtrROM or xtrSENSE.

Thanks again!

BTW, here's a good thread to read through about what apps might be safe to delete (and which ones you should not delete): http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/53646-unwanted-apps.html

Just practice safe deleting.

 

[jhewit22]

Oh, I'm just deleting market apps...games and whatnot that I don't need/play/use. Thank you though! Any tips of nandroid?

 

[scary alien]

Oh, I'm just deleting market apps...games and whatnot that I don't need/play/use. Thank you though! Any tips of nandroid?

You bet...here's a couple:

1. Always make sure you have an almost full charge on your phone when doing recovery mode things (like backups, restores, flashing, etc.). Nandroid will warn you if you have less than 30% battery charge, but its always a good practice to have a good, full charge. I always do and make sure the phone is plugged-in to either the USB or the charging adapter.

2. Make sure you have at least 250Mb of free space on your /sdcard

3. The Nandroid backups will be created on your /sdcard in a folder called /sdcard/nandroid in a subdirectory with your phone's serial number (don't publish that here since it uniquely identifies you and your phone). Underneath that directory, Nandroid will create a BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm format directory where ccyymmdd is the current date and hhmm is the current time (I thinks its GMT so it'll be several hours offset from your real time (unless you live in Greenwich, England, that is )). You can rename this BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm directory after the backup is done to be more meaningful (i.e., "xtrsense-base-camp" or "kaos-froyo-2010-09-27", etc.--just don't use spaces in the filename or Amon_RA's recovery can't see the file names.

4. Make sure that the Nandroid backup says its successful. If it isn't, check your battery charge and/or free space and just retry.

That's pretty much it. Good luck!

P.S. if you are just deleting Market apps, you don't really have to make a Nandroid backup (but it can't hurt...)