htc desire a8181 help needed

jij said:

hi hadron, if you type in query, the following

'Using 4EXT to partition SD card - Help, please!'

i believe it's my question, how do you save what's on the sd to pc, in order to bring it back when done? its really like a new phone & since 3network told me 3g wont go anywhere just yet, im happy to keep - managesd to get htc new shell ( current has few scratches) so will look new bar size - yippy.

if card brand new, do i just do the partition 2gb?, it mentions size of 1st partition not 2nd first???? hate to bridge it up!

Click to expand...

To save what's on the card, either connect the phone to a computer by USB and copy the data to the computer or else stick the card in a card reader and do the same.

I've not looked at the partitioning interface in 4Ext for a very long time, so can only guess. If it asks for the size of the first partition I'd start by subtracting what I want for the second and then putting the answer in as the size of the first. However, there is a catch here: if I want a 2GB second partition what do I subtract 2 from? You might think that's obvious: 32 - 2 => 30, but it isn't necessarily so. The problem is that computers (including phones) work in binary units, but storage device manufacturers use decimal. In decimal units "Giga" means 10^9, but in binary it means 2^30 (a binary "k" is 2^10 = 1024, M = k*k, G = k*k*k). So a binary "G" is 7% larger than a decimal G, and so a "32GB" card actually has a capacity of about 29.7GB in the units computers use. So the question here is, what units does 4Ext use? If it tells you the capacity of the card as either 32 or 29.7 (maybe 29.8) that will answer the question. Otherwise you may just need to experiment (you can redo partitioning if needed, or enter a number, see what happens next, and you'll probably be able to cancel if it doesn't look right).

jij said:

ps how easy? is it to take the phone apart, to transplant old parts into new body? would you advise it with a bad main hand??

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Not sure what a "main hand" is. It's probably easier to transplant parts of this phone than a more modern one, but I've not tried it. You'll probably need a special screwdriver (small Torx heads were popular with phone manufacturers, back before they started just glueing the things together).

jij said:

pps on a pc's drive, you can have Vista 1st partition & Windows 7 2nd...

is it possible with phones?

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No, definitely not. Firstly, the ROMs have to live in the internal storage, and you don't have enough space on this phone. Secondly it means repartitioning the internal storage, which is highly specialised and risky stuff, and the tools for doing that disappeared years ago. But most importantly, there's no point creating a second system partition (which the tools we had didn't allow anyway) unless the bootloader understands what that partition is and asks you which one you wish to use, which would require a much more radical change to the bootloader than just editing the sizes of the system and data partitions in the partition table (which is all I've ever seen done) - basically a fully custom bootloader rather than just a bit of hex editing.

jij said:

hi, hadron - if i run the google apps in recovery again, will it just set it back to default aa it were, or will it erase messages & call log? etc - dont want to just do it & regret it!

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Running Google apps in recovery? Do you mean flashing the Google apps package? That should only affect the /system partition, while your data are on the /data partition, so it shouldn't erase anything - all it will do is reinstall the same Google apps that were installed the first time. And the Google apps package is nothing to do with call logs or messages.

But if you have any doubts, take a backup first (there are many SMS backup apps that do call logs as well).

However, why do you want to do this?

jij said:

hi hadron, as the system storage says 148mb, i take it that, 148mb would be the size of 1st? partition or is it 32gb ie 29.11gb - 148mb. it only goes to 4096kb, so if i did 2 or 4 gb, the system memory then becomes that? i take it the 1st partition is ref to memory of internal system?

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148MB sounds a lot like the size of the /data partition, i.e. internal storage.

I've powered up my old Desire to have a look at this, and think I understand now.
It doesn't say size of the first partition, but size of the first "sd-ext" partition. That little bit of jargon is important: it means the first ext4 filesystem partition on the SD card, which will come after the fat32 partition (so the first sd-ext partition will actually be the second partition on the card). So yes, pick 2GB or 4GB, which is what it will use for whatever expansion that ROM does (at least apps, possibly app data). It will then ask for the size of "the second sd-ext partition", which unless you are installing a ROM that uses a second partition (and the ROM's thread would say if it did) you should skip, and finally it will ask about a swap partition which you should also skip. Then it will tell you what the partitions will be and ask you whether you want to proceed.

Hmm, you probably should have used fat32 for the main sdcard partition - that's what the phone software will expect. I expect that's why it says "unavailable" for the /sdcard partition. You only need an ext filesystem for the second partition (sd-ext).

As for sd-ext, there was some setup stuff in the ROM's XDA thread. That would be needed for the phone to use the partition. Have you done that?

Creating a partition by itself won't solve the storage issue, the ROM needs to know to use it. Some might auto-detect, but that one had some instructions in the first post for things you should do to set up to use the partition, so I'd give them a spin.

I think that once the mounts2sd script is set up correctly things should all be automatic. The instructions in the Beanstalk ROM thread seem to be telling you you can use the app to enable the things you want moved to sd, while the page you link seems to be telling you how to use terminal commands to do the same thing. It's a bit puzzling that those commands are all "disable", since I'd expect that to mean "don't move things", so I'd try with the app first.

I've not used this particular script, but the similar scripts I used with this device were all automatic once set up. In fact with the way these things work it would be easier to make it automatic than to be selective about which apps were moved and which weren't.

You should be able to see the fat32 partition of the SD card from the computer, though you may have to select a particular connection mode (file sharing, file transfer, MTP, something like that - Android 4 is different from Android 2, where the card behaved just as if it were a flash drive).

The internal storage probably can't be seen by the computer, including the ext4 partition. I say "probably" because Android 4 on a Desire is a setup I've never used, and the filesystem will be different from a phone that was originally launched with Android 4. When I used a Desire with a partitioned SD card Windows could never see that partition or the internal storage (though I could mount that partition on a Linux laptop), but a further difference here is that Android 4 mounts the card as a MTP device rather than USB Mass Storage (i.e. a flash drive) - that shouldn't stop you seeing the fat32 partition (and it might not be obvious that there is anything different - just look in Windows Explorer), but it probably makes it even less likely that you'll be able to see the other partition.

Is it just Google or other websites? Have you tried a different browser: maybe an old ROM - and 4.4 is still old - comes with an old browser with out of date security? The reference to ssl problems suggests a browser security issue.

I've never seen the message "please insert disk into removable disk", but that sort of sounds like it's treating it as a card reader (Windows is probably the major OS I use least). Apart from trying a different USB cable or socket I don't have any magic ideas right now. Of course there's always the workaround of a USB microSD card reader (remove the card from the phone, stick it in the reader, copy to/from the fat32 partition, return to phone).

I don't really remember those HTC apps any more, I'm afraid. I tend to just use whatever clock/timer app comes with my phone. For video player I do have VLC installed, but I doubt it looks much like the HTC app (but it's open source and compatible with a wide range of video formats, which were my motivations for choosing it).

jij said:

hi hadron, hope ur well. is there anyway to get to the 4ext recovery (if 'unfortunately themes etc has stopped, appears) without having to cancel multiple boxes in order to get to the reboot recovery - tried to run 4ext from command prompt, but it seems the file cant load or im just doing ti wrong1? if yes can you give me the instructions to type in - other than that, everything is real smooth

Click to expand...

You should be able to do it by shutting the phone down (pull the battery out if it's really not cooperating), then hold the volume key down then press and hold the power button. That should get you into the bootloader, where you can use the volume key to highlight the option to boot into recovery then select it using (I think) the trackpad button (on later HTCs with no optical trackpad it was the power key). It may tell you what to do on the bootloaderr screen anyway (it does on later models).

jij said:

hi hadron, ms affects my main hand!, but thankfully, after 2 days of trying, i managed 2 press 'unfortunately themes', 'u android process' & 'u ?' has stopped in time (this happens when u exit camera - but ur imside the program) & i got back in. android 4.4.4 is awesome & u have been AWESOME! with ur HELP
i will use the phone just for calls, camera & texts - dont want that again!

when i askd about getting into recovery via comp, it was just to save having to clear the above mentiond boxes in order 2 get 2 Reboot
reboot
recover
bootloa
hotboo box, in order to get to get it running as is smoothly! when i tried, it executed 'fastboot devices' but other commands were 'not know?' - i wondered if because 4ext is now on the phone!?

i just feel, if we could all help each other as much with our ability as u have did & do, the world would begin to heal as during the lockdown time - i saw a t-shirt 2day
' sad sad world ', the worlds alright people or many of them are the problem

ur 1 of the real kind 1's - i wish i could b of use, as uv been to me, the phone is just for my not bad not main hand

THANKS

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I'm just passing on stuff I learned from others.

4Ext should make no difference to fastboot. But to get into recovery from a computer the easiest is probably to use ADB: "adb reboot recovery" if I remember correctly. As long as Android is running and USB debugging is turned on that should work.