new rootfs...

[vilord]

posted a new rootfs over at http://code.google.com/p/vogue-android

If you have a system partition AND a swap partition, but no data partition, it'll blow up.

to use it normally, just drop it in and go.

If you want to do partitions, bring up partition magic(windoze), or gparted(linux) with the card inserted but not mounted.
Resize or delete the first/primary partition, then create partitions as follows:
p1: most of the disk, fat32
p2: about 256MB should be plenty, ext2 for system
p3: about 256MB should be plenty, ext2 for data (optional)
p4: whatever you want, ext2 for swap (optional and not recommended)
then reformat p1 and add all your stuff to it. you don't have to bother formatting the other partitions as the built-in installer will do that for you.
boot up and when prompted push volume down to initiate the installer, then follow the on-screen prompts.

quick history:
11/14: lots of progress with data, but disconnecting failed
11/15: fixed disconnects in data and made it work with a partitioned card (but broke it for a non-partitioned card)
11/16: fixed non-partitioned cards and made it work if you only have a system partition.

[cybik]

Trying now.

ED: Aw craps. I'm using an ext2-style installation and it doesn't work.

[sshark]

Nice, thanks.

Will this be compatible with what Msmison has going on?

[plemen]

Trying now.

ED: Aw craps. I'm using an ext2-style installation and it doesn't work.

I'm using an ext2 image (system.ext2) just fine. R u using an ext2 image or ext2 partition?

Thanks vilord - so far everything works well but I'll post results after using it all day.

[mssmison]

Nice, thanks.

Will this be compatible with what Msmison has going on?

Today or tomorrow :) The work is done it just has to be tested and integrated.

[polyrhythmic]

I've altered the init to boot off of the ext2 partition:
diff rootfs-vilord/init rootfs-14-11-09-ext2part/init
86,104c86,87
< if [ -e $card/system.ext2 ] ; then
< echo "Using uncompressed system"
< losetup /dev/block/loop1 $card/system.ext2
< [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to reach system.ext2 on SD Card"
< e2fsck -y /dev/block/loop1
< mount -t ext2 -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/block/loop1 /system
< [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to mount /system"
< elif [ -e $card/system.sqsh ] ; then
< echo "Using SquashFS system"
< losetup /dev/block/loop1 $card/system.sqsh
< [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to find system.sqsh on SD Card"
< mount -t squashfs -o ro,noatime,nodiratime /dev/block/loop1 /system
< [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to mount /system"
< else
< losetup /dev/block/loop1 $card/system.img
< [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to find system.img on SD Card"
< mount -t cramfs -o ro,noatime,nodiratime /dev/block/loop1 /system
< [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to mount /system"
< fi
---
> mount -t ext2 -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system
> [ $? -eq 0 ] || fail "Failed to mount /system"


Available for download here. Removed at mssmisions request

Testing now...

[polyrhythmic]

Vilord you ARE the man!! I was having odd problems with senseHero 1.3.3 where data only worked with a fresh system installation and fresh data... No more problems!!! I am using my rootfs posted above with senseHero on my Kaiser. WOW. I'll test some donut builds soon and see if that solved our Kaiser donut problem too!.

/me kicks himself for talking about Kaisers again in the Vogue forum ;)

Edit: I made a thread in the Kaiser forum (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4952576#post4952576) so us Kaiser users can talk over there.

[jamezelle]

Vilord you ARE the man!! I was having odd problems with senseHero 1.3.3 where data only worked with a fresh system installation and fresh data... No more problems!!! I am using my rootfs posted above with senseHero on my Kaiser. WOW. I'll test some donut builds soon and see if that solved our Kaiser donut problem too!.

/me kicks himself for talking about Kaisers again in the Vogue forum ;)

Edit: I made a thread in the Kaiser forum (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4952576#post4952576) so us Kaiser users can talk over there.

thanks man i was gonna add ext2 support you beat me to it;)

[mssmison]

Thanks, the parition support is really coming along, with an all new way of doing things, my phone was drying after falling in the dog dish so vilord has been working on it today.

[myn]

Maybe a placebo but it seems to have made my Xrom (1.5) more snappy.

[polyrhythmic]

I removed the link from my post, now you just have to remove it from your quote ;)

It already runs so well, looking forward to whatever could be better!

Cheers

[plemen]

I'm having slow home screen refreshes using this rootfs with donut on Vogue... if I visit a few sites and then go back to home (long cam press) the screen takes some time to come up. This is new behavior with this rootfs... can somebody confirm this or is it just me?

[vilord]

updated with the partitioning support and a refactored installer based on mssmison's work.

now if you have three partitions, mmcblk0p1, p2, and p3, where p1 is your regular vfat/fat32, p2 is system, and p3 is data, it will use the partitions. To install a system to those partitions, press volume down when prompted, and it'll guide you through the options for installing your system and data to the partitions.

memfree values were updated slightly to improve performance, but at the expense that it will kill off a couple more background processes (like home screen) when things are eating up lots of memory... try it without compcache and see what you think... the numbers can be adjusted again if it sucks to much.

[sshark]

updated with the partitioning support and a refactored installer based on mssmison's work.

now if you have three partitions, mmcblk0p1, p2, and p3, where p1 is your regular vfat/fat32, p2 is system, and p3 is data, it will use the partitions.

Interesting and thanks.

Could you pl tell what should be partition type for data partition? FAT32 or Ext2?

[vilord]

Interesting and thanks.

Could you pl tell what should be partition type for data partition? FAT32 or Ext2?

For now, data and system partitions should be ext2, although the filesystem will be created when running the installer, you just need to create the partitions.

Coming eventually will be either nilfs2 or some other log-centric filesystem that doesn't freak out when you pull the plug.

For the partitions, I would suggest about 256MB for each of system and data, although if you're tight on space, 128 should be enough for now for each.

[cybik]

New partitionning system works, zen's 1.6 Droid-Ion-Donut is purring. So, a beer to you, Jesse (i think i owe you two now!). And it also got the GPS working!

Ed. : Scratch the PPP issues. My signal sucked.

[vilord]

what are you seeing specifically with the PPP? I'm seeing rock-solid right now, but i don't know what'll happen tomorrow on the subway to work :)

regarding GPS, It might only work the first time, and only if it was turned on in winmo before you rebooted... we're still looking into that one.

[sshark]

For now, data and system partitions should be ext2, although the filesystem will be created when running the installer, you just need to create the partitions.

Coming eventually will be either nilfs2 or some other log-centric filesystem that doesn't freak out when you pull the plug.

For the partitions, I would suggest about 256MB for each of system and data, although if you're tight on space, 128 should be enough for now for each.

This thing works flawlessly, as you suggested, I have fat32, ext2 (sys) and ext2 (data) partitions. No errors in upgrade and this things flies.
thanks.

[silex]

Are three partitions really necessary? Can we not use two like with v2.2? IE, Fat32 and 500mb ext2.

[TheKartus]

I think this thread should focus toward the new installation system. I see it being confusing what it all means for new users without new instructions. Esp. determining size of partitions and what steps to take for installation.

EDIT: Things seem to be going significantly slower with the three partitions and the new installation than it was before with two. Not sure why.

[silex]

You might want to share what sqsh file you were using. Can you go into more details on how slow it was?

[jamezelle]

make sure your fat partition is first(if using gparted make sure fat is to the left of the ext2 partitions), as vilord stated both partitions should be about 256 mb each. unless you are low on space then 128 will do


1. fat32 (normal partition (the one windows mobile sees))
2. ext2 (system)
3. ext2 (data)

then boot up as normal but watch because it will ask you what you want it to do its pretty self explanitory...

@silex: using my personal SenseHERO 1.3.3r4 it is working pretty darn good

[TheKartus]

You might want to share what sqsh file you were using. Can you go into more details on how slow it was?

I am using Plemen's theme build. The build was flying before the ext2 method and better after it. I went through a new install, new data and now its unbearably slow. Slower than hero, everything force closes.....

I am reformatting my SD card, gonna try and sort this out.

[silex]

Are three partitions really necessary? Can we not use two like with v2.2? IE, Fat32 and 500mb ext2.
Wanted to answer my own question and say that as other's have mentioned after me, three partitions is absolutely necessary! Needs to be laid out as jamezelle stated.

Are we supposed to keep the files under the baseFiles directory now? I had to put rootfs.img under /sdcard, but now it's coughing that my data.img isn't there either. I was kind of happy that we cleaned up the card a bit more, but it seems everything still needs to be under the root directory :(

[jamezelle]

Wanted to answer my own question and say that as other's have mentioned after me, three partitions is absolutely necessary! Needs to be laid out as jamezelle stated.

Are we supposed to keep the files under the baseFiles directory now? I had to put rootfs.img under /sdcard, but now it's coughing that my data.img isn't there either. I was kind of happy that we cleaned up the card a bit more, but it seems everything still needs to be under the root directory :(

put everything from the basefiles folder to the root of the sdcard(fat partition)
baseFiles is not a directory:)

[TheKartus]

I reformatted my SD card. Still slow. Going to try a different system image...

[Macmee]

I'm not sure I understand, is using a separate partition for data faster, and will this create a new data, or will it copy the contents of my preexisting one?

[enatefox]

With Cyanogenmod 4.2.4, he added the ability to lock Home into memory in Spare Parts (my dark donut 2 has it). If anyone's having issues with it reloading due to the memorykiller tweak, I'd recommend you try it..

[Rhys'Droid]

With Cyanogenmod 4.2.4, he added the ability to lock Home into memory in Spare Parts (my dark donut 2 has it). If anyone's having issues with it reloading due to the memorykiller tweak, I'd recommend you try it..

Hmm...any way to add that to an existing installation? I'm really happy with Zen's Droid-ion-donut build, but that would be a NICE tweak.

[vilord]

the ext2 method that mssmison created was meant for 2 partitions, wasn't it? Thats what he sent me...
I can look into having it detect if you have just a system partition, or if you have a system partition and a data partition.

-If you're seeing force closes, try opening up the user.<romtype>.conf file from your SD card and set compcache_en to 1 instead of 0.

-baseFiles is not a folder to have on your SD card... I'll change it to be android, which is a folder you *can* have on your card.

-please keep the comments coming, and i need *someone* to detail the problem with data. I've tested this with t-mobile and with verizon wireless, and I'm not seeing any issues... in fact it seems better so far to me, no radio locking up so far and it recovers more often from cruddy cell signals.

[enatefox]

Rhys'Droid, it's the SpareParts.apk you can grab from my themed image or directly from Cyanogenmod 4.2.4 (.5 might be out). Seems to work even with AdvancedLauncher. No reloading yet but haven't tried with SenseUI.

Vilord, where did the wifi files come from?

[Rhys'Droid]

Rhys'Droid, it's the SpareParts.apk you can grab from my themed image or directly from Cyanogenmod 4.2.4 (.5 might be out). Seems to work even with AdvancedLauncher. No reloading yet but haven't tried with SenseUI.

Vilord, where did the wifi files come from?

Any chance you could link to the apk? I'm at work so I don't have access to my Linux box to rip it from the image. Sorry for the OT.

[vilord]

nate, I have no idea where the wifi files came from... send me updated ones if you like, or if you have git, push them to the prePruvot branch on androidhtc.git.sourceforge.net

[vilord]

Just reposted basefiles and rootfs... now it comes in an android folder, which you can feel free to use, everything is set up to look either in root of the SD or /android.

It also should now support having just a system partition, but I HAVE NOT TESTED this feature, so someone else'll need to do that for me :D

[polyrhythmic]

So this new rootfs supports a data partition, but not a swap partition? Or does it support 4 partitions?

[vilord]

if you really want a swap partition, it supports it... just make sure your user.<romid>.conf file specifies the right partition for swap. If you have data and swap on mmcblk0p3, bad things will happen (they'll clobber each other).

[ruizit0]

humm mssmission closed the new partition sistem post... and redirected to here.. suposing the new rootfs has all what we need... bue where the instructions to create and use partitions and everything else

[enatefox]

Jesse, what's root password? passwd root is getting bad uid 0... can't telnet in


The new rootfs.img has it all. Make sure the card is not mounted.
If you use Linux:
sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0
##delete any partitions with "d"
n ## (new)
1 ## (partition 1)
## specify the size. ex: "+500M"
t ## type
1 ## partition #1
c ## W95 FAT 32 LBA required
********************************************
## the rest is for additional partitions
n ## new
2 ## partition #2
## specify the size
## repeat for any other partitions from the asterisks above
********************************************
w ## (write the changes to the disk)
q ## quit
********************************************
sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/mmcblkp2
## repeat this above command for each EXT2 partition

[TheKartus]

This whole process seems very overcomplicated even for me now, and I have been doing this Android stuff for a while. I think new users are going to start having lots of trouble.

I put in the new basefiles, and now during the boot process it doesn't seem to see my data partition or something and keeps trying to make a new data store in the Android folder. Then it tells me there is not enough space and stops booting. Going to reformat my SD card once again. This is getting kind of silly though....

Shouldn't I just be able to boot up normally?

[vilord]

yeah, if you haven't messed with partitions you should be able to just boot up normally... this is very odd...

EDIT: Make sure you're using today's bootfiles, not yesterdays...

quick history:
saturday: lots of progress with data, but disconnecting failed
sunday: fixed disconnects in data and made it work with a partitioned card (but broke it for a non-partitioned card)
monday: fixed non-partitioned cards and made it work if you only have a system partition.


OH I just thought of something else... if you have a system partition AND a swap partition, but no data partition, it'll blow up.

[TheKartus]

yeah, if you haven't messed with partitions you should be able to just boot up normally... this is very odd...

EDIT: Make sure you're using today's bootfiles, not yesterdays...

quick history:
saturday: lots of progress with data, but disconnecting failed
sunday: fixed disconnects in data and made it work with a partitioned card (but broke it for a non-partitioned card)
monday: fixed non-partitioned cards and made it work if you only have a system partition.


OH I just thought of something else... if you have a system partition AND a swap partition, but no data partition, it'll blow up.
Right. The explosion thing should probably be noted in big letters on the front page.............

[vilord]

my apologies. First page updated.
I'm not sure how to check if p3 is a data partition or a swap partition... i guess i could possibly check the partition flags and look for 82 vs 83? what do y'all think?

[enatefox]

There's an issue with just a /system partition on block 2 and no third partition. It failed until it stopped looking for system.img. Init should handle if PARTITIONED = 1 or 2 and not just 2.

[vilord]

There's an issue with just a /system partition on block 2 and no third partition. It failed until it stopped looking for system.img. Init should handle if PARTITIONED = 1 or 2 and not just 2.
I think it does handle that?
all the system stuff is in this area:
if [ $PARTITIONED -eq 0 ] ; then
bla
else
system stuff
fi

[jamezelle]

quick notes

installed system and data on the two partitions yesterday, it creates the databackup folder but backs up data to systembackup folder.

just downloaded todays basefiles(11/16) to /sdcard/android and it fails to fing system image on the card. instead of booting the partitions


just feedback...

[vilord]

I think it does handle that?
all the system stuff is in this area:
if [ $PARTITIONED -eq 0 ] ; then
bla
else
system stuff
fi
I'll make a change tonight that if it is partitioned and system.bla is present it will boot from system.bla instead of the partition (and give the option to install)...

right now it is checking for an existing installedsystem.bla

[enatefox]

Negative. Should handle -lt 1 or -lt 2
if [ $PARTITIONED -lt 2 ] ; then
....

if [ $PARTITIONED -lt 1 ] || [ $PARTITIONED -lt 2 ]; then...
No biggie. Just now using a partition for system and it is much faster. Good stuff here

[vilord]

-lt is less than, so lt 1 is always lt 2.
the system section is checking first for -eq, which is equals 0
but the partitioned build stuff will only be touched if you have $PARTITIONED not equal to 0.

I'm guessing that the problem you're having is that it doesn't find /android/backupsystem/installedsystem.sqsh.
If you're running with stuff in / before and in /android now, then move backupsystem into /android.

[jamezelle]

-lt is less than, so lt 1 is always lt 2.
the system section is checking first for -eq, which is equals 0
but the partitioned build stuff will only be touched if you have $PARTITIONED not equal to 0.

I'm guessing that the problem you're having is that it doesn't find /android/backupsystem/installedsystem.sqsh.
If you're running with stuff in / before and in /android now, then move backupsystem into /android.

thanks i didnt think of that

[enatefox]

Okay, -lt is a whoops moment for me. At any rate, I made it test for 1 and removed the backupsystem test and it worked so I'm happy. I'll do some editing to get my staysafe script to work at boot so people can seamlessly back up proprietary apps in one shot from a full image on the SD and PM you the update.

[ali3nfr3ak]

hey thanks for your hard work :D, this definitly speeds up hero rom and another thing i noticed is that my data connection starts automactically now , never use to, had to disable it in the default txt lol

[sshark]

I am on new rootfs and it works good.

I like and I will use three partition idea, but right now, I am getting few force close/wait messages.

I found out that turning off compcache helps a lot. Right now, I have swap file at 200 mb, I am planning that to 32 or 48 mb to see if it has any more positive effect on speed (My logic - hold lesser in memory and spend less time searching through it when needed, thoughts?).

By the way, here is my SD Card lay out:

FAT32 = 7 gb
ext2 (system) = 200 mb
ext2 (data) = 300 mb.


Let me know if and how I can help you all good people.

[Macmee]

if I use a data partition then after it loads the android logo it goes to the main lockscreen saying no service then goes to a black screen with a white underscore in the top left, then it goes back to lockscreen saying no service, then back to this black screen again and again once every 3 seconds or so.


edit: now it does it no matter what I do...

[djp3k05]

basefiles-20091115 - working perfectly for me.(3 partitions). today i will test basefiles-20091116.zip.(kaiser user)

[clockworx]

This really does improve the SenseHero ROM quite a bit. I disabled compcache and added a swap of 160MB to give a total RAM matching the hero's (128MB RAM + 160MB swap = 288).

It runs nice and fast now, and phone calls come in almost immediately (which was the other issue I had, I'd only get the call just as it was about to go to VM). The only issue I have is the Home Screen seems to frequently swap out and need to be reloaded. I tried to install the Cyanogen Spare Parts, but I guess it is 1.6 based so that is a no go for Sense Hero. Googling for the process to lock the home screen into memory, I found someone saying that the way to do it is adding

ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=0

to /data/local.prop

Anyone know anything about this process? I added it already and rebooted, so I'm about to test and see how it goes anyways, just wanted to see if anyone had any further feedback.

EDIT: Well, seems to work pretty damn well unless I'm just really lucky. Browser always used to force a home screen reload, and now it doesn't seem to. I haven't had a reload yet since rebooting.

[vilord]

I had made a change to the home_app_adj number... I'll change it back for the next release. Thanks clockworx!

[plemen]

20091116 work very well with one fat and one ext2 system partition. Thanks for all of your work vilord!

Question - with adb I no longer have write access even though I am adb'ed as root - how can I write to the system partition?

Thanks.

[clockworx]

I had made a change to the home_app_adj number... I'll change it back for the next release. Thanks clockworx!

Can you tell me which img and file that is in? I'm trying to get a bit better at this, and I knew I saw you mention the memory settings somewhere, but I couldn't find it again...

[enatefox]

plemen:
mount -o remount,rw /system
just set it back to "ro" when you're done.

I don't have a /data/local.prop, is that for /system/build.prop? I added that line to both. You can also adjust that in real time with "setprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ 0" so you don't have to reboot. Also good is open the dialer and hit the home button to leave it in memory. Also, dalvik.vm.execution-mode int:fast

And with zipalign from the SDK, I recommend you run it against all your apps. Significant speed boost as it optimizes the APKs. Especially framework-res.apk

[vilord]

Can you tell me which img and file that is in? I'm trying to get a bit better at this, and I knew I saw you mention the memory settings somewhere, but I couldn't find it again...
here's the commit that changed it:
http://androidhtc.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=androidhtc/bootenv;a=commitdiff;h=4572d5f0246b6c9f8dbf9672c7e 399c8772ce2d0
I'll change this line:
setprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ 2 to be 0, or just change it back to 4... does someone want to check what happens when it is 4?

[clockworx]

plemen:
mount -o remount,rw /system
just set it back to "ro" when you're done.

I don't have a /data/local.prop, is that for /system/build.prop? I added that line to both. You can also adjust that in real time with "setprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ 0" so you don't have to reboot. Also good is open the dialer and hit the home button to leave it in memory. Also, dalvik.vm.execution-mode int:fast

And with zipalign from the SDK, I recommend you run it against all your apps. Significant speed boost as it optimizes the APKs. Especially framework-res.apk

I didn't have a /data/local.prop either, I created it and all it has now is that line in it. Where does "dalvik.vm.execution-mode int:fast" go? I'll have to try that and the zipalign as well.

[enatefox]

Guess this is a good place for optimization, please tell me if I'm wrong

You might want to be careful with modifying the dalvik VM but what's the worst that could happen... you should be able to add "ro.dalvik.vm.execution-mode int:fast" in build.prop or I guess local.prop. Or while running, you can "setprop dalvik.vm.execution-mode int:fast"
Here's more info (http://www.netmite.com/android/mydroid/dalvik/docs/embedded-vm-control.html).

This is how I used zipalign with Linux:
for i in $(ls *.apk); do zipalign -v 4 $i output/$i; done
while in the folder with APKs (that are not odexed..) then pushed to the phone and chmod'ed 644 again.

[clockworx]

Dumb question: Is there a companion to "setprop" that lists the current value? I'd like to make sure that local.prop fires after the init and that the changes actually take effect (and that it isn't all in my head!)

[enatefox]

yup: getprop

[clockworx]

Hmmm......what's the deal? Is stuff in local.prop locked in, or does getprop not pick up the change?


# getprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ
getprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ
4
# setprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ 0
setprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ 0
# getprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ
getprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ
4
#

[enatefox]

Yeah, I'm guessing that the settings in the kernel are overriding them? Same issue

[clockworx]

Settings of 0 obviously prevent home screen reloads, but 1 seems to be pretty much the same. I'm guessing there is some scenario where eventually it would refresh on 1, but I didn't find it in a quick test.

From 2 on upwards, opening pretty much any program would kick the homescreen out of memory and cause a reload when going back to it.

[KERKEDAGAIN]

..so that i understand what's happening..my data.img has been mounted to one of my partitions, backed up to a folder, and (if i dont wipe it) stored alongside the backed up version. correct?

[vilord]

KERKEDAGAIN: here's what it does ("it" being the latest one labelled 11-17):
1: if you have a system.bla, ask if you want to write it to a partition. Yes -> mounts it in a temp place, wipes out the old partition, copies everything over, unmounts both, and moves it to a systembackup file

2: if you have a data.img, ask if you want to write it to a partition. (same functionality as for system) will be moved to backupsystem\data.img

3: ask if you want to backup your current data partition. if yes, creates a new backupsystem\backupdata.img and dumps the partition to there

4: ask if you want to wipe your current data partition. if yes, erases the data partition


I suppose it would be better if it asked you about backing up *before* it asked if you wanted to overwrite :D

clockworx, i think we just need to drop the threshold where it starts killing things off... currently for home and it is set at 8192 which is 32MB, so if less than 32MB free, it'll kill home. I'll readjust all the numbers to more sane values (about half way between what they are now and what they are on hero

[jamezelle]

Settings of 0 obviously prevent home screen reloads, but 1 seems to be pretty much the same. I'm guessing there is some scenario where eventually it would refresh on 1, but I didn't find it in a quick test.

From 2 on upwards, opening pretty much any program would kick the homescreen out of memory and cause a reload when going back to it.

so did you get it to work by adding it to the build prop or did the kernel's setting overide it? how did you test it

[clockworx]

so did you get it to work by adding it to the build prob or did the kernel's setting overide it?

I only messed around by adding it to the /data/local.prop that I mentioned (which for sensehero did not exist before I created it and added that one line.)

EDIT: Forgot about the testing part. I ran getprop from the shell to be sure the value I had put was what was returned. From a clean start, I would launch a few programs (browser, weather mostly) and then "back out" to see if home relaunched. >2 home relaunched every time. =< 1 it never relaunched.

[vilord]

the properties files are read in the following order:
/default.prop
/system/build.prop
/system/default.prop
/data/local.prop

the values in the above files apparently are read before what is in init.rc...
ro values can only be set once without a reboot.

[enatefox]

so you're saying that init.rc is read last so it will override the above files right?

[vilord]

so you're saying that init.rc is read last so it will override the above files right?
not quite. some props will be, but any of the ro. properties can only be set once. so if they're set in default.prop, *nothing* else can touch them

[jamezelle]

I only messed around by adding it to the /data/local.prop that I mentioned (which for sensehero did not exist before I created it and added that one line.)

EDIT: Forgot about the testing part. I ran getprop from the shell to be sure the value I had put was what was returned. From a clean start, I would launch a few programs (browser, weather mostly) and then "back out" to see if home relaunched. >2 home relaunched every time. =< 1 it never relaunched.

good to know... thanks

[clockworx]

clockworx, i think we just need to drop the threshold where it starts killing things off... currently for home and it is set at 8192 which is 32MB, so if less than 32MB free, it'll kill home. I'll readjust all the numbers to more sane values (about half way between what they are now and what they are on hero

Just curiousity....is there any real reason we'd want to allow home to be paged out before other stuff? My general usage is launch X, Back to home, launch Y, Back to home, etc,etc. Even if you do X, Y, X and don't want X to be paged out because you'll be going back to it, you'll be going there via Home which will still probably cause the same or worse delay.

[enatefox]

There's no reason except that SenseUI is very heavy so you might want that to happen (maybe). Setting it to 0 sounds good. But for Sense images, I usually have Bar Control in the notification bar that acts as a hack for a very much needed start menu so I can skip going to home

[clockworx]

I guess there's also the possibility that a single app might have a memory requirement so huge that you'd prefer to just page out the launcher while you use it.....I wouldn't think any of the typical apps are that memory-hungry, but I don't have any hard data.

I might try out bar control too. I'm generally back at Home anyways, but having the option not to do so would be nice.

[KERKEDAGAIN]

KERKEDAGAIN: here's what it does ("it" being the latest one labelled 11-17):
1: if you have a system.bla, ask if you want to write it to a partition. Yes -> mounts it in a temp place, wipes out the old partition, copies everything over, unmounts both, and moves it to a systembackup file

2: if you have a data.img, ask if you want to write it to a partition. (same functionality as for system) will be moved to backupsystem\data.img

3: ask if you want to backup your current data partition. if yes, creates a new backupsystem\backupdata.img and dumps the partition to there

4: ask if you want to wipe your current data partition. if yes, erases the data partition


I suppose it would be better if it asked you about backing up *before* it asked if you wanted to overwrite :D

clockworx, i think we just need to drop the threshold where it starts killing things off... currently for home and it is set at 8192 which is 32MB, so if less than 32MB free, it'll kill home. I'll readjust all the numbers to more sane values (about half way between what they are now and what they are on hero

thanks a bunch for the in-depth explanation!

I'm gettin' lost with all the tech jargon and i'm pretty sure use guys know this but i'll just mention that home stopped reloading once i re-enabled compache. This sense-hero flies like a worm fresh outta the cocoon!! :D

[jamezelle]

thanks a bunch for the in-depth explanation!

I'm gettin' lost with all the tech jargon and i'm pretty sure use guys know this but i'll just mention that home stopped reloading once i re-enabled compache. This sense-hero flies like a worm fresh outta the cocoon!! :D

im thinkin that overall a swapfile is going to be better we are just discussing a way to keep rosie the homescreen from being swapped out of memory so it doesnt reload everytime you open a program

[vilord]

i'd want home paged out. An example: I'm reading an email and a notification comes in of a new text message with a link to a website, follow that link a read the text. then i get a phone call,finish the call, back to the browser, finish looking at the page, close browser, close text messaging, and i want to go back to email where i was.

Home doesn't have a "state" so it can reload at any time and be where it was whereas other apps do have a state, and if they are unloaded, you lose the state (need to reload the browser window, or scroll back to where you were in the email, etc)

jamezelle: swap is bad because it destroys the SD card... remember you only get about 100k writes per cell on the SD. swap can be writing and rewriting many times per second, but if you image a scenario where it just writes once per second for a single cell repeatedly, that cell would be unusable after just over 1 day.

Granted it is spread out over the whole flash by the wear levelling technology, but you're still rewriting a LOT and will eventually kill the card (we're talking about a matter of a few months and it could be dead)

And when the card dies it just stops being readable, so you lose everything.

Same thing happens with ext3, but that is days or weeks, not months.

[refthemc]

Okay so I booted up Gparted live and set my first partition as fat32 1gig, second 256mb ext2, third 256mb ext2, and fourth (just in case?) 256mb ext2 on a 2gig sd card. I also just copied the "android" folder in the basefiles to the sd card and put Zens donut sqsh in the android folder, clicking Run in haret now....wish me luck

[refthemc]

"press VolD to upgrade, End to conitue"....

Was I supposed to click upgrade? lol sorry for my noobness

[jamezelle]

i'd want home paged out. An example: I'm reading an email and a notification comes in of a new text message with a link to a website, follow that link a read the text. then i get a phone call,finish the call, back to the browser, finish looking at the page, close browser, close text messaging, and i want to go back to email where i was.

Home doesn't have a "state" so it can reload at any time and be where it was whereas other apps do have a state, and if they are unloaded, you lose the state (need to reload the browser window, or scroll back to where you were in the email, etc)

jamezelle: swap is bad because it destroys the SD card... remember you only get about 100k writes per cell on the SD. swap can be writing and rewriting many times per second, but if you image a scenario where it just writes once per second for a single cell repeatedly, that cell would be unusable after just over 1 day.

Granted it is spread out over the whole flash by the wear levelling technology, but you're still rewriting a LOT and will eventually kill the card (we're talking about a matter of a few months and it could be dead)

And when the card dies it just stops being readable, so you lose everything.

Same thing happens with ext3, but that is days or weeks, not months.

thanks for the insight on swap, i guess it is back to compcache...


@refthemc yes you press VolDn to install to partitions

[refthemc]

@refthemc yes you press VolDn to install to partitions

Thanks bro I appreciate it

[KERKEDAGAIN]

soooo...no swap enabled in my .conf file is the way to go for the sake of my card; but my speed will suffer consequentially, correct? ATM i have both linux swap and compache enabled...no bueno?

[clockworx]

I switched back to just compcache, 24 MB, and set the home app adj variable back to 1. It seems to be performing pretty well...

[enatefox]

Can someone post the button maps for our phones?

[jamezelle]

I switched back to just compcache, 24 MB, and set the home app adj variable back to 1. It seems to be performing pretty well...

yea im running 96mb compcache, swappiness 60(default) and cc memlimit 50mb. no problems at all:D

[enatefox]

I copied root for shadow, passwd and group from my computer to figure out why I can't chown to root. Everything is 0:0 which would be okay but it seems like certain things (like the actual phone) don't like the permissions and some other issues. Just did a clean reinstall. Maybe it's just me?

[jamezelle]

Can someone post the button maps for our phones?

ill look into the repos unless vilord chimes back first...im not sure where to look though:o

[enatefox]

Having issues here with permissions:

bash-4.0# ls -l system/bin/
-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 4275 Oct 7 12:50 a2sd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 149428 Oct 7 12:50 akmd
...

pressing the talk button:

W/KeyCharacterMap( 1427): No keyboard for id 0
W/KeyCharacterMap( 1427): Using default keymap: /system/usr/keychars/qwerty.kcm.bin

no dialer but I can open it from the launcher

Works fine with ext2 image, not a partition. What's wrong?

[jamezelle]

Having issues here with permissions:

pressing the talk button:

no dialer but I can open it from the launcher

Works fine with ext2 image, not a partition. What's wrong?

my guess is that the -a arguement from the sdk genext2fs which sets certian permissions(android specific) is undone when every thing is copied to the partition.

it copies every file but does it copy every permission

my $0.02

[enatefox]

I can chown on my computer but root is a bad user on the device and I can't use Ubuntu on the phone since I can't get permission to set up the loop device to chown things back. Are other people able to get dialer button working and shutdown options, etc. or is it just me?

[plemen]

I can chown on my computer but root is a bad user on the device and I can't use Ubuntu on the phone since I can't get permission to set up the loop device to chown things back. Are other people able to get dialer button working and shutdown options, etc. or is it just me?

Hmm? You mean pressing the green phone button? If so mine opens the dialer (well call log).

Thanks for rw mount info btw.

[mssmison]

remount your system rw and run the fix_permissions script that is in the system/bin folder.

[enatefox]

Well, that set the gid to 2000 now instead of 0 but uid is still 0. Same issues-- no lockscreen, keyboard, dialer..
W/KeyCharacterMap(11796): No keyboard for id 0
W/KeyCharacterMap(11796): Using default keymap: /system/usr/keychars/qwerty.kcm.bin]
I guess I'll keep messing around with it

[mssmison]

Just as a heads up on this. Vilord and I are looking at a newer better way to impliment this, it should make it easier for everyone and better with more options. It's gonna take us sometime though as there's lots of projects on the go.

[polyrhythmic]

Speaking of keymaps, is it possible to change the Scroll Wheel press to Select (like in WM, same as the center button in Android) and change the side OK button to back (like in WM, same as the front OK is mapped now in Android)? It is always confusing to switch over from WM and have the side OK button be effectively backwards. I am always pressing the scroll wheel to select but in Android it does nothing :(

[clockworx]

Just as a heads up on this. Vilord and I are looking at a newer better way to impliment this, it should make it easier for everyone and better with more options. It's gonna take us sometime though as there's lots of projects on the go.

I'm not sure if the rootfs can currently do this, but it would be a nice option..

Right now, I'm guessing it will automatically boot to /system if it finds it and you don't choose to do the upgrade. Is there any way we could have a short prompt with the option to do things the "old" way? (boot .sqsh directly and use data.img, or create a new one if none exists). The reasoning is that it would be nice for being able to back up and test various builds and data, while still keeping my "preferred" one intact in the ext2 partitions.

[clockworx]

Sorry for making this the generic development thread (maybe we should start one(?) unless there's one I'm not aware of).....

Does anyone have a guide or quick summary of how to start developing for our device? I've downloaded the android source, and was going to try to take a look at GPS (probably won't be successful since it has been years since I did C, but whatever, it's a good chance to get my feet wet.)

I was hoping for just basic info of how one goes from the "basic" android source to whatever changes we've incorporated. Do we just build a few things seperately (like the RIL and kernel) and lay them on top, or do we overlay stuff into the full android source and build it all together?

Any help or off-the-top-of-their-head advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Well, figures right after posting I would see this link in dzo's thread:

http://www.androidonhtc.com/get_involved

Guess that's what I want!

[Giggles 312]

yup. the noob strikes back .. :(

sorry for the dumb question but i really want to get this to work with senseHERO 1.3.3.

so in the vogue installer after booting in haret, you hit Vol down to start the installer. then hit vol down to update partitions. then after thats done, do you need to backup the data and wipe it or what? im kinda confused.

sorry for mai noobness.

[TheKartus]

yup. the noob strikes back .. :(

sorry for the dumb question but i really want to get this to work with senseHERO 1.3.3.

so in the vogue installer after booting in haret, you hit Vol down to start the installer. then hit vol down to update partitions. then after thats done, do you need to backup the data and wipe it or what? im kinda confused.

sorry for mai noobness.

The two options really are self explanatory. If you want to backup a previous data image, back it up... If you are going to a new build and there is no need, then wipe it so that you can make a new one for your new image.

[Giggles 312]

The two options really are self explanatory. If you want to backup a previous data image, back it up... If you are going to a new build and there is no need, then wipe it so that you can make a new one for your new image.

ok so for starting up a new build i run the installer, then run the update, then skip the backup, and then do the wipe, and then finally boot, or did i forget something?

[jamezelle]

ok so for starting up a new build i run the installer, then run the update, then skip the backup, and then do the wipe, and then finally boot, or did i forget something?

say i am moving from a sense ui build to donut

press voldn to enter android installer

voldn

welcom blah blah press voldn to install new system end to skip

voldn

press voldn to backup data parttion end to skip(if i want it for future use i press voldn or end to skip)

(ill keep it) voldn

press voldn to wipe data parttion end to skip

voldn


press voldn to backup data partition or end to skip (not necessary if you wiped)

end

press any key to boot

anykey



i hope this helps

[KERKEDAGAIN]

I tried using a backed up data file from my other card (same) build, and the only things that carried over were my apps..no numbers or settings. Had to run setup again n everything. That normal?

[Giggles 312]

thanks jamezelle. it did help alot. :)

but idk if there is something wrong with my phone or what, this helped me with zen's droid ion build, but not for the sensehero. i STILL get the darn android_power: wakeup error. idk if its something wrong with the build mixed with the ext2 booting or if i just have bad luck!

but at least i now know how to work with the ext2 booting :D

[moekind]

you need recovery.img as well right?

[jamezelle]

you need recovery.img as well right?

no not for the latest versions

[vilord]

I'm not sure if the rootfs can currently do this, but it would be a nice option..

Right now, I'm guessing it will automatically boot to /system if it finds it and you don't choose to do the upgrade. Is there any way we could have a short prompt with the option to do things the "old" way? (boot .sqsh directly and use data.img, or create a new one if none exists). The reasoning is that it would be nice for being able to back up and test various builds and data, while still keeping my "preferred" one intact in the ext2 partitions.
clockworx, right now it works this way (or at least it should... i haven't actually tested it). If you put a system.img or system.sqsh or system.ext2 into your sdroot (or /android if you have one), it will completely turn off partitioning and act like they aren't there. Great for testing :)

[enatefox]

Well, after messing around with things I got it all working now. It would not detect the second partition at all so I ended up putting a file "doinstall" that gets removed after to decide what to do and all is well. Permissions seem fine as well.

[clockworx]

clockworx, right now it works this way (or at least it should... i haven't actually tested it). If you put a system.img or system.sqsh or system.ext2 into your sdroot (or /android if you have one), it will completely turn off partitioning and act like they aren't there. Great for testing :)

Very cool....I'm assuming by "turn off" partitioning you also mean it will use the data.img or create a new one rather than stomping all over the data partition?

Eeeeeeexcellent.

[vilord]

Yup! That was my plan :)

[enatefox]

aww spoke too soon. I'm giving up on ext2 for now.

[Michel82]

aww spoke too soon. I'm giving up on ext2 for now.

Still not working with the permissions? Don't know if this is any help but i remember i read somewhere you can use chmod in the custom_shells{} section in your user.conf to set permissions.

[enatefox]

Well, it will simply not detect additional partitions as is so I just made a file it checked for to say it should install and that was good. Perms are good. Then I couldn't get phone service. Logcat shows the CPU is pegged and things get real crashy. Camera caused the phone to hard freeze.

Obviously if I'm alone I don't want to clog the thread with symptoms of some underlying issue so I'll keep looking at it on my own and post if I get it figured out.

An odd thing is that the install function, system(), doesn't remove the losetup at the end (losetup -d ...) and I ended up with data not being able to mount on loop0 I guess because it wasn't free? There is something weird there because sometimes when I chroot into Ubuntu on my phone it will mount data out of nowhere as the block device. I run "losetup" and see each attempt has been assigned to data.img despite explicitly setting the Linux image path..

[lauyanyameric]

hi vilord,

is it possible to assign another button to initiate the installer? or simply like mssmision's last version "Press Any Key"? Thanks!!!

[jamezelle]

hi vilord,

is it possible to assign another button to initiate the installer? or simply like mssmision's last version "Press Any Key"? Thanks!!!

well he has it that way to have an escape route of hitting the end key in case you accedently launched the installer.....

[vilord]

What don't you like about volume down?

The power, send, volume up, camera, and dpad-center all cannot be detected from script.

So we're limited to volume down, arrow keys, and end. And no, I don't like the any key option.

[Rhys'Droid]

What don't you like about volume down?

The power, send, volume up, camera, and dpad-center all cannot be detected from script.

So we're limited to volume down, arrow keys, and end. And no, I don't like the any key option.

Could be using a Kaiser, which doesn't have a "volume down" button, but I believe that someone said that the left soft key is the equivalent on the Kaiser, correct?

[djp3k05]

Could be using a Kaiser, which doesn't have a "volume down" button, but I believe that someone said that the left soft key is the equivalent on the Kaiser, correct?
correct, it's equivalent on kaiser.

[lauyanyameric]

yes, i am on kaiser, thanks all you guys and also polyrhythmic helped me find that button out. :)

[mfpreach]

Anyone know how to format ext2 in snow leopard?
I also have windows 7 and have had no luck.
I downloaded Pmagic 8 but it gave me errors and compatibility problems when I started up. It also said my primary disks had some errors and I know from history (over 15 years of using partition magic), I don't mess around when it spits errors as my harddrives might go toast.

Since osx is based on bsd, I could imagine EXT2 is possible but I can't find the answer.

Anyone?
Thanks.

[jamezelle]

hey jesse i found a small flaw in the rootfs

in init:
elif [ -f /system/custom.build ] ; then
echo "Custom init.rc detected"
RCCONFIG="hero"
RCSCRIPT="sysinit"

it looks for

"init.cfg/sysinit.rc" which does not exist in the rootfs, instead of

"system/sysinit.rc"

it is very minor though :o

[clockworx]

clockworx, right now it works this way (or at least it should... i haven't actually tested it). If you put a system.img or system.sqsh or system.ext2 into your sdroot (or /android if you have one), it will completely turn off partitioning and act like they aren't there. Great for testing :)

Sorry, late followup on this....I dropped a system.sqsh into my FAT root and it doesn't seem to pick up that it's there. I have hero installed on the ext2, along with a data partition. I have no data.img in my FAT root, if that matters. It just ends up booting directly into the Hero installed on my ext2.

[vilord]

hmm i haven't done much testing... but i think it should work if you have it in the right place... do you have an android folder? If so you'll want to put the system.sqsh in there.

[clockworx]

hmm i haven't done much testing... but i think it should work if you have it in the right place... do you have an android folder? If so you'll want to put the system.sqsh in there.

Oh, it doesn't work in the root of the card? Oops...

[BJNK]

I was wondering if it would be possible to get the basefiles with the old keymap available? I just can't adjust to the "new" settings :)

[enatefox]

the keylayout in /system/usr/keylayout will override the ones in rootfs.img. I drop the old ones there and it works the way I want.

[myn]

here's the commit that changed it:
http://androidhtc.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=androidhtc/bootenv;a=commitdiff;h=4572d5f0246b6c9f8dbf9672c7e 399c8772ce2d0
I'll change this line:
setprop ro.HOME_APP_ADJ 2 to be 0, or just change it back to 4... does someone want to check what happens when it is 4?

Was this ever resolved/fixed and applied to the latest basefiles?

[jamezelle]

Was this ever resolved/fixed and applied to the latest basefiles?

im sure it only matters if you are using a swap file/partition. as having the HOME_APP_ADJ set to 2 is letting rosie/homescreen swap out of ram memory more easily.

[vilord]

Anyone know how to format ext2 in snow leopard?
I also have windows 7 and have had no luck.
I downloaded Pmagic 8 but it gave me errors and compatibility problems when I started up. It also said my primary disks had some errors and I know from history (over 15 years of using partition magic), I don't mess around when it spits errors as my harddrives might go toast.

Since osx is based on bsd, I could imagine EXT2 is possible but I can't find the answer.

Anyone?
Thanks.
for mac osx, you just need to create two partitions after the primary fat32 partition... they should be type 0x83. if you just run the normal fdisk tool, you'd just type 83... if you're using the disk utility, I think it gives you some options. You don't need to format, you just need to create the partitions.

i would back everything up off the disk first...
for xp and above, I would use the disk management tool to create the partitions, then open a command prompt, use diskpart... "list disk" will show the drives, "select disk=X" will pick #X from the list, then "list partition", then "select partition=X", then set id=83.

Diskpart also has shrink and expand commands, but you'll have to investigate if they work.

[mrkite38]

I can vouch for diskpart's extend command working. Haven't tried shrink.

[Michel82]

I've also tried diskpart in my quest for a method to create ext2 partitions from windows but it looks like diskpart doesn't show removable disks.

[160bpm]

Hi All,

Have playing arround with partition my SD Card. Within Windows XP, Vista, 7 it will not work at all.

I have create a bootable Linux USB Stick. Started and use within the OS Gparted.

Now i have a SD Card with:
1 FAT32 Partition
2 EXT2 Partitions

[vilord]

you could use the gparted live cd as a vmware player image... both should be free :)

[160bpm]

have tried that at first place..by VMware didn't find my build in SD Card reader ;)

[mrkite38]

I've also tried diskpart in my quest for a method to create ext2 partitions from windows but it looks like diskpart doesn't show removable disks.

Hmm... I was able to use diskpart on a 2GB USB stick. How are you connecting your sd card to the pc?

Edit: Looks like you can use diskpart on usb volumes unde win 7 but not xp. Don't know about vista.

[JeckyllHavok]

have tried that at first place..by VMware didn't find my build in SD Card reader


Have you tried VMWare Player o VMWare Workstation?
The player isn't able to mount the host usb devices. In vmware you first have to plug the card reader in, and then youll can add it to vmware.The exact steps are described in the manual of vmware, just search for usb device. If it works, you see that the card reader isn't recognized by Windows anymore, until you unmount it in VMWare or you close the virtual machine

[mssmison]

I've also tried diskpart in my quest for a method to create ext2 partitions from windows but it looks like diskpart doesn't show removable disks.

If you use parted with the card in the sd adapter in your regular card reader slot it should work just fine. I've done it that way lots of times.

[160bpm]

Have you tried VMWare Player o VMWare Workstation?
The player isn't able to mount the host usb devices. In vmware you first have to plug the card reader in, and then youll can add it to vmware.The exact steps are described in the manual of vmware, just search for usb device. If it works, you see that the card reader isn't recognized by Windows anymore, until you unmount it in VMWare or you close the virtual machine

I'm now using a bootable USB stick with Linux on :) works better

[aven_soulgazer]

I'm now using a bootable USB stick with Linux on :) works better

Do you have it set up to be a persistant usb? That means it saves any settings you change to the linux system and save files to the usb storage. If not do a search for persistant usb ubuntu or such, think it's pendrive or something website with instructions

[polyrhythmic]

I noticed a couple things today while swapping data partitions:

The "media folder not found" error still shows although I have the media folder in /android (not sdcard root) and it works correctly.

Also, the calibration and gestures files are still created in sdcard root, rather than /android.

This doesn't cause me any real problems but I thought I should mention it.

[vilord]

yeah, media should still be in root (although zen's donut-ion image already contains media, so you'd end up with duplicates)
As ffor the calibration and gestures, those are created by userspace libraries... and they should be fixed :) But I don't have access to 'em.

EDIT: note that you will always see extra folders created in SDROOT as that is where lots of apps put things, for example I have a copilot folder in my SDROOT...

[jamezelle]

I noticed a couple things today while swapping data partitions:

The "media folder not found" error still shows although I have the media folder in /android (not sdcard root) and it works correctly.

Also, the calibration and gestures files are still created in sdcard root, rather than /android.

This doesn't cause me any real problems but I thought I should mention it.

ok the only things being read from /anrdoid are the basefiles and the system/data

the media folder has to be at the root of the sdcard because that is where android is looking for it AFAIK it cant be changed

the calibration and gestures files are created on the sdcard root because thats the default directory(coded in the app itself) to place them it has nothing to do with the rootfs

[polyrhythmic]

ok the only things being read from /anrdoid are the basefiles and the system/data

the media folder has to be at the root of the sdcard because that is where android is looking for it AFAIK it cant be changed

Well, when I downloaded the most recent file package with the /android folder, /media was a subfolder of /android. I do not have a media folder in my sdcard root, I only have it in /android, and it works perfectly -- all my notifications and ringtones show up in the settings.

I don't understand how anything in the native Android apps could be hardcoded to /sdcard, since Android is designed to run off internal memory (or in our case, the data.img). I must be wrong :confused:

[zenulator]

Well, when I downloaded the most recent file package with the /android folder, /media was a subfolder of /android. I do not have a media folder in my sdcard root, I only have it in /android, and it works perfectly -- all my notifications and ringtones show up in the settings.

I don't understand how anything in the native Android apps could be hardcoded to /sdcard, since Android is designed to run off internal memory (or in our case, the data.img). I must be wrong :confused:

Thats how it is on android phones and even though they run internally apps still store data on the sdcard even on phones like the g1.

[polyrhythmic]

I stand corrected! I consider it bad practice to leave random files in the SD root, but as good as Google is they still surprise me with mediocre code now and then (see Chrome browser and Closure, lol)