# Partitioning and formatting to EXT4



## bastafari (Sep 13, 2011)

So over on the AOKP ICS thread for the Evo 4g someone posted about formatting the sc card to EXT 4 because it handles Linux better. Also they recommended to partition the SD Card and use DarkTremors A2SD. In the 2 years Ive been rooted I never saw or understood the need to. I have changed the internal partition with this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=855424 so I could make space for more apps. So why partition the sd card? And as far as formatting the sd, can I use windows or do I need to use terminal emulator? Will it cause problems with my recovery/windows reading or mounting it? Thanks in advance for your help.


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## carhauler1969 (Jul 28, 2011)

bastafari said:


> So over on the AOKP ICS thread for the Evo 4g someone posted about formatting the sc card to EXT 4 because it handles Linux better. Also they recommended to partition the SD Card and use DarkTremors A2SD. In the 2 years Ive been rooted I never saw or understood the need to. I have changed the internal partition with this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=855424 so I could make space for more apps. So why partition the sd card? And as far as formatting the sd, can I use windows or do I need to use terminal emulator? Will it cause problems with my recovery/windows reading or mounting it? Thanks in advance for your help.


I am also running the AOKP ICS ROM on my EVO, and made the switch to ext4 tonight. I can tell you the difference in speed is undeniable, it's way faster & smoother on ext4.








The main reasons to make the jump to DTa2sd is because the Android native apps2sd function is horribly inefficient, only moves about half of the app data to the SD card, and is quite well known for being the cause of data loss, apps & widgets not working properly, etc, etc. With DTa2sd once it's setup ALL of your apps are moved to the SDext3/4 partition silently with no user input required. All of your user apps will function normally, including widgets, because the OS thinks your apps are still on the internal storage, when in reality they are only symlinked there. Also, with a2sd, specifically version 2.7.5.3-beta4, you can run your dalvik cache from the ext3/4 partition, and move all of your app data to the ext3/4 as well.
On the ICS roms it's beneficial because the cache partition on the EVO is only about 140MB, ICS needs roughly twice that to run smoothly & efficiently, so moving the dalvik cache to the ext3/4 (preferably ext4) is hugely beneficial.
Like you I also run the firerat mod on my EVO, and I can tell you first hand that DTa2sd is hands down one of the most beneficial mods you can do on the EVO to bypass the biggest handicap on that phone, the sheer lack of internal storage.
You are much better off partitioning & formatting the SD card in the phone through recovery. I've had nothing but problems trying to do it in Windows. Running DTa2sd will not affect your recovery at all, even with the firerat mod.
Here's a guide that I collaborated on for setting up DTa2sd on the EVO: http://therootofallevo.com/2011/04/10-step-guide-properly-set-darktremors-a2sd/
DTa2sd 2.7.5.3-beta4a - http://db.tt/OhIyQb1e

Happy Flashing! 

Sent from my E4GT using Tapatalk Pro


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## bastafari (Sep 13, 2011)

Awesome will check out those links! So to be clear you use firerat mod in conjunction with everything else on your ICS Rom?


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## ropodope (Jul 28, 2011)

bastafari said:


> Awesome will check out those links! So to be clear you use firerat mod in conjunction with everything else on your ICS Rom?


Yes he does, so do I and they coexist quite nicely.

ropodope

If life hands you melons you are probably dylsexic.


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## bastafari (Sep 13, 2011)

Thanks for the great advise guys. Seems to be working great, didn't run any of those scripts in terminal emulator though. Will do if i have issues. I also used TRWP instead of Amon-Ra to format the partition to ext4 but gave no option to change swap size to 0 from 32. Other than that, will anything besides Titanium Backup show the sd card? Android app management doesn't, makes sense. Thanks again.


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## dcharleyultra (Feb 11, 2012)

"mount" in Terminal Emulater will, but the partitions will be reported as ext2.

(Command needs to be run as "su". )

Swyped from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk


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## bastafari (Sep 13, 2011)

Okay one more, so when flashing a new rom I restore my nandroid then flash the new rom and darktrm again? Besides making a backup of my laucher settings with titanium or adw and restoring, is there a way to boot into the launcher as it was on the last rom, for example when going between nightlies?


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## dcharleyultra (Feb 11, 2012)

With AOSP ROMs, flashing a nightly typically leaves data and settings intact.

Best bet is to nandroid and try it.

Swyped from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk


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## rob_z11 (Aug 26, 2011)

I have created SD-EXT, and most of the AOSP ROM for ICS uses the SD-EXT partition effectively, but AOKP's last few builds don't seems to use the SD-EXT. IT is mounting SD-EXT under /System/SD.

I have sent seveal emails to Developers to look into it, but have no success so far. I love their AOKP ROM for my Evo. Running smooth as ...


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## rob_z11 (Aug 26, 2011)

bastafari said:


> Okay one more, so when flashing a new rom I restore my nandroid then flash the new rom and darktrm again? Besides making a backup of my laucher settings with titanium or adw and restoring, is there a way to boot into the launcher as it was on the last rom, for example when going between nightlies?


YOu could use either apex or nova launcher which will allow you to backup your launcher settings. So you don't have to rebuild your home screen again and again.


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## dcharleyultra (Feb 11, 2012)

rob_z11 said:


> I have created SD-EXT, and most of the AOSP ROM for ICS uses the SD-EXT partition effectively, but AOKP's last few builds don't seems to use the SD-EXT. IT is mounting SD-EXT under /System/SD.
> 
> I have sent seveal emails to Developers to look into it, but have no success so far. I love their AOKP ROM for my Evo. Running smooth as ...


 Have you tried flashing DTa2sd?

Swyped from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk


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## rob_z11 (Aug 26, 2011)

dcharleyultra said:


> Have you tried flashing DTa2sd?
> 
> Swyped from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk


That is the one I am using. DTapp2sd-2.7.5.3-beta04-signed.zip. Here is my two mount point which deals with the SDCARD.

/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system/sd ext2 rw,noatime,nodiratime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0


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## dcharleyultra (Feb 11, 2012)

Sorry, I cannot offer any other help - I haven't flashed AOKP yet. (Still on Deck's 1.3d - using ext4. )

Edit: Have you tried running a2sd reinstall?

Swyped from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk


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## HdMsTrTeCh (Jan 27, 2012)

So I went and bought a class 10 16Gb card. Partitioned with Ra recovery, then moved my apps and cache to SD with DTa2sd. I see there are commands for cache to SD and cache to partition. Does cache to partition put cache back to phone or to another partition on phone or different/better SD spot? Just want to make sure I'm doing it right.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


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## dcharleyultra (Feb 11, 2012)

I don't remember offhand. Type "a2sd help" in a terminal emulator.

Swyped from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk


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## Captain_Throwback (Sep 2, 2011)

HdMsTrTeCh said:


> So I went and bought a class 10 16Gb card. Partitioned with Ra recovery, then moved my apps and cache to SD with DTa2sd. I see there are commands for cache to SD and cache to partition. Does cache to partition put cache back to phone or to another partition on phone or different/better SD spot? Just want to make sure I'm doing it right.
> 
> Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


a2sd cachepart moves the Dalvik cache to the /cache partition. While this frees up space on both the SD-EXT and internal memory, if you have a lot of apps, your Cache partition will get full quickly, and can prevent you from having enough room to download apps from the Market.

If you have a fast enough SD card (which you do), a2sd cachesd is probably the way to go. If you didn't, and you have sufficient internal memory (which you might, since your apps are on your EXT partition), it would probably be a good idea to have the Dalvik cache on internal memory "a2sd nocache". That would give you the best performance, in that case.


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## bastafari (Sep 13, 2011)

This thread has helped me tremendously and with AOKP has made my Evo 4g feel new again. One issue. Flashed CM7 nightly with and without flashing a2sd and with both my apps on position except for 2 don't show. Doesn't cm7 have a2sd baked in? Do I need to run a command in terminal emulator?


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## ropodope (Jul 28, 2011)

bastafari said:


> This thread has helped me tremendously and with AOKP has made my Evo 4g feel new again. One issue. Flashed CM7 nightly with and without flashing a2sd and with both my apps on position except for 2 don't show. Doesn't cm7 have a2sd baked in? Do I need to run a command in terminal emulator?


It's not dark tremors a2sd that is baked in. Definitely inferior. Just flash the a2sd file and you are good to go. Guides to set it up are easy to find.

ropodope

If life hands you melons you are probably dylsexic.


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