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Root [FAQ]ROOT MEMORY: a2sd+ / partitions (updated 10th August 2011)

Firstly a thanks to SURoot for his brilliant guides and "aftersales service"!

Thanks to him, I have a rooted phone, am able to restore my phone to previus state without issue.

I've finally come to the conclusion that I do need proper A2SD+ and to get that on my Sense ROM (which I must say doesn't really bother me) is just going to be too difficult (to get init support), so I'm going to flash Cyanogenmod ROM with simple2ext after I get a new SD card (and after I remember to turn it into a goldcard first!!).

I would however much prefer to get proper A2DS+ on my current ROM, and if anybody knows a way that it is possible (without the very messy ADP shell access!) I'd be most grateful!!
 
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Something that might be of interest to the more adventurous:

Thalamus has recently started a blog, and the post on 3rd July includes a link to a "hboot patcher". This seems to be a windows utility (console, not GUI) to build a patched hboot with your own custom mtd. This would have the convenience of the alpharev patched hboots but for whatever sizes you want.

Obviously this is also very much "at your own risk", as he says several times. But thought it might be of interest here.

Thanks to k3lcior at XDA who drew my attention to this.
 
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It seems it but its not. Download it then decide if you're going to burn it to cd, usb or use a virtual machine. I have s step by step for the latter in my signature.

Once you're in gparted, its easy

Remember to nandroid backup everything then copy all the sd to pc. You're going to be making the fat partition smaller and deleting the ext to create a bigger one.

It's all GUI so should.be fine. Fear not
 
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Hi, I'm having problems using GParted to set up an extended partition on my memory card. I've tried to set it up a few times but seem to be doing something wrong as I can't see the extended partition through various partition viewer apps. Does anyone have a screenshot of a correctly setup extended partition on GParted? I think it would help me if I could see what I should have. Thanks!
 
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SUroot thank you for the beautiful guide. I have a question after installing a new rom.

I recently installed Cool3D AceS v4 Bravo on my HTC Desire with CM7 boot. I created a main FAT32 partition and 1 GB EXT4 partition on my SD card.

1. Is my a2sd working correctly? I am in command line and "/system/bin/a2sd check" didnt find anything.
I also tried the a2sd gui and it also didn't find anything. Any advices?

Do I need to re-align my ext4 or something? or does that not matter at all.

2. a2sd seems to be correctly installed. I check QSI and there is an a2sd section with about 715mb left (for a 1GB ext4 partition).

However, the apps still remain shown in internal storage. And the options are still available in Manage Applications for "move to sd card".

I checked the sd-ext folder and it doesn't contain any .apk files for the apps i downloaded from the market. So what's going on?
 
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I'm still struggling to get the extended partition working correctly. I have set it up as in the picture I've attached - however when I use a2sd the apps seem to be being put on the fat32 partition instead of the extended. Have I set it up correctly? Thanks
 

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For some reason the app won't let me view the image.

However something worries me about your statement. What do you mean "use a2sd" exactly? You don't "use" anything, its automatic. If your apps are going to fat32, you're putting them there yourself and you haven't understood this thread properly.

Please re read this thread
 
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Hi all,

After having my Desire for 18 month i finally decided to root.

Spent hours and hours of research and followed THE GREAT guides of SUroot religiously with every step. (although used other guides too)

So now i'm rooted with Unrevoked, S-Off with Alpharev, updated to latest radio, installed A2SD with EXT4 ( 8 gb cl4 FAT32 with 1 gb to partition) and a beautiful Aurora v04 installed.

Here comes the issue - I've installed a few apps and got a "low memory message" - ARRRGGGGHHHH. Looks like a2sd isn't working!!! ( after all those hours .

I've spent a few more hours of research and followed the advice of Ironjon from XDA developers [ROM] Aurora v04 [Sense 3.0|Android 2.3.5][OCT12] - Page 90 - xda-developers But still no luck.

I'm pulling my hair our, seriously frustrated :mad: and mostly just disappointed. Could i have missed something?

Please let me know your thoughts and try not smearing the floor with me as this is my first time :) but i did spent hours and hours of research and this is my last resort...

Thanks for your replies in advance!
 
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details please? What rom are you using firstly?

HI SUroot,

I'm using Aurora v0.4

Alpharev CM7R2
bRAVO pvt1 SHIP SOFF
HBOOT 6.93.1002
MICROP 031d
TOUCH PANEL SYNT0101
RADIO 5.17.05.23

I've been digging posts all day today. Apparently i need to move to A2SD+ as A2SD isn't working properly with Aurora. The problem is, my EXT4 partition is only recognisable on Desire now - A2SD total .98gb, Free: 631MB . Can't see it on Gparted - only shown as unallocated 6.42GB (not to mention Windows 7) I've tried several suggestions but nothing works...:(

Thanks


P.S. I've noticed that when i install or unintstall any apps, both A2SD and Internal storage space is reducing. Not sure if this is of any significance


Chixpix
 
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Su, I wondered if a slight edit here, and possibly elsewhere would be useful.

You need to go through a rooting procedure (unrevoked recommended) and install a custom rom which has support for a2sd+
I admit to having had some confusion about this. The phrase "has support for a2sd+" meant to me that I had to get a2sd+ from somewhere and flash it or install it on a Rom which supported it. I did not realise to well down the track, that many roms had it "preinstalled" but was inactive there until an EXT3 or EXT4 partition was created.

Does that make sense?

Also, in
1) Backup your SD card contents to your PC
2) Download GParted and Burn to CD/USB or use the Gparted with VMware guide.
3) Connect your device in Recovery mode and mount as USB mass storage
4) Resize the existing FAT32 partition from the back, leaving space after it and create an EXT partition in the space. Steps for the GUI are below.

  • In the drop down menu (top right) select the SD card (be careful not to select your HDD)
  • Right click on the FAT32 Partition and select resize
  • Press the Up arrow on "Free Space Following" until you have the desired sizes
  • Click Resize
  • right click in unallocated space and select New> EXT format of your choice
  • Click Apply
"Press the Up arrow on "Free Space Following"....
Again, another very small point but when noobs dont know what they are doing every variation from the instructions is a worry!
In my own case I could not click on the Up arrow to get the desired space. I needed to adjust the sizes in the boxes above before I could put a suitable number in the "Free Space Following".

That is obvious now, and the whole thing is simplicity itself but doing it for the first time gets one somewhat fearful of screwing something else.

Having said all of the above, I would have a brick if not for the info Sticky above. Now I have a fast beast with heaps of memory!
 
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