How to format Internal SDCard to EXT4?

Phk · Jun 14, 2011

Hi there,

I've tried to follow other "tutorials" (for another Android phones) to format my internal SD Card to ext4, but with no success.

My method was:
- Connect phone to Linux PC
- Enable USB Storage on Phone (the drive appears in Linux)
- dmesg | tail (to see new device and partition name, for example, /dev/sdb1)
- mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1
- Unmount partition in Linux
- Stop USB Storage on Phone
- Unplug Cable

And the result is.......... The phone formats the Internal SD again to vfat!!!

Why does this happen? Any ideas?
How can i surpass this? I have Latest stock rom (rooted).

Getting lost here... :\

Cheers,
Phk

nerotix · Jun 14, 2011

1. Download Minitool Partition Wizard
2. Connect phone with USB mass storage
3. Open Minitool Partition en right click on the SD Card and choose format.
4. Choose file system EXT4 and 32KB cluster size
5. When you did all that, you click the "Apply" button in the top left corner.
6. Wait for it to finish and voila!

Hope this helps!

punshkin · Jun 14, 2011

sorry for this question, but why do you want to do that? is it so that you can use the whole 16gb for apps and store media on your external SD only?

MyrddinLXXIIX · Jun 14, 2011

punshkin said:
sorry for this question, but why do you want to do that? is it so that you can use the whole 16gb for apps and store media on your external SD only?

Obviously to use HD-Video on the phone.

Files often exceed 4 Gigabyte, and for that filesystems like ntfs, exfat or ext4 are needed.

Going to give it a try soon, thanks nerotix!

cheekystew · Jun 14, 2011

nerotix said:
1. Download Minitool Partition Wizard
2. Connect phone with USB mass storage
3. Open Minitool Partition en right click on the SD Card and choose format.
4. Choose file system EXT4 and 32KB cluster size
5. When you did all that, you click the "Apply" button in the top left corner.
6. Wait for it to finish and voila!

Is there a way of doing this through windows? Also would it be worth doing it to my 16gb external SD. Thanx in advance

Hope this helps!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

sgstwo · Jun 15, 2011

You will need to patch some files for that to work. It's not bothered me enough that I want to fix it. If you restart your phone, it will reformat your internal SD-card to vfat, even if it's already ext4-formatted.

dyallo · Jun 15, 2011

I'm also interested in this.
Really, it will change back to the original file system?
Which files would we have to patch to prevent this?

nerotix · Jun 15, 2011

dyallo said:
I'm also interested in this.
Really, it will change back to the original file system?
Which files would we have to patch to prevent this?

It depends, I believe alot of ROMs are ext4 supported, for those that are ext4 supported you dont have to patch anything I believe.

Phk · Jun 15, 2011

Guys please post only after testing. This is important to avoid deadlocks.....

Facts:
#1 - Current SGS2 Stock roms have rootfs and datafs formatted in EXT4 so they do support it
#2 - they force sd format to vfat so that is probably what needs patching.

Question is :
A - WHICH system app do we need to patch
B - Does the SD mount correctly as ext4 ?

Cheers and thanks
Phk

Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App.... at 220km/h on a jet train

MyrddinLXXIIX · Jun 15, 2011

Phk said:
Guys please post only after testing. This is important to avoid deadlocks.....

Facts:
#1 - Current SGS2 Stock roms have rootfs and datafs formatted in EXT4 so they do support it
#2 - they force sd format to vfat so that is probably what needs patching.

Question is :
A - WHICH system app do we need to patch

That is the million dollar question indeed.

Phk said:
B - Does the SD mount correctly as ext4 ?

No, it does not.
Tried both a microSD inside and another SD external via USB-OTG.
The OS 'catches' the 'faulty' ext4 cards and prevents mounting, which should work perfectly allright seeing Fact #1.

PS: The minitool mentioned above does not allow cluster sizes of 32 KB, only 1, 2 and 4 (checked this with an 8 GB mSDHC and 16 GB SDHC).

sgstwo · Jun 15, 2011

As far as I can remember:

/init.rc:

Code:

exec apply_system_policy /dev/block/mmcblk0p11 vfat

and /init which only seems to support FAT mounted SD-cards.

hakkinenvthh · Jun 15, 2011

So you can take a look here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=14642927#post14642927

I think it will support NTFS soon when the devs are really interested in

Phk · Jun 15, 2011

sgstwo said:
As far as I can remember:

/init.rc:

Code:

exec apply_system_policy /dev/block/mmcblk0p11 vfat

and /init which only seems to support FAT mounted SD-cards.

THANKS.
I'm going to comment the init.rc line and try manual procedure again.

Stay tuned

Phk · Jun 15, 2011

Phk said:
THANKS.
I'm going to comment the init.rc line and try manual procedure again.

Stay tuned

Oh great.. Guess what.. /init.rc gets renewed at boot

rootfs is readonly, i've mounted it RW, edited init.rc, commented the vfat line, formatted the SD, and then reboot.

When the device booted, SD was clean and mounted with VFAT again

Suggestions?

nerotix · Jun 15, 2011

MyrddinLXXIIX said:
That is the million dollar question indeed.

No, it does not.
Tried both a microSD inside and another SD external via USB-OTG.
The OS 'catches' the 'faulty' ext4 cards and prevents mounting, which should work perfectly allright seeing Fact #1.

PS: The minitool mentioned above does not allow cluster sizes of 32 KB, only 1, 2 and 4 (checked this with an 8 GB mSDHC and 16 GB SDHC).

yes it does allow 32KB and even 64KB, either u got an old version of the program or a crappy SD card

sgstwo · Jun 16, 2011

Phk said:
Oh great.. Guess what.. /init.rc gets renewed at boot

rootfs is readonly, i've mounted it RW, edited init.rc, commented the vfat line, formatted the SD, and then reboot.

When the device booted, SD was clean and mounted with VFAT again

Suggestions?

/init and /init.rc are part of zImage (the kernel). You must extract the initramfs, update the file, and write the changes back. You will probably get a yellow triangle (non-Samsung kernel message) if you manage to boot it.

Phk · Jun 16, 2011

sgstwo said:
/init and /init.rc are part of zImage (the kernel). You must extract the initramfs, update the file, and write the changes back. You will probably get a yellow triangle (non-Samsung kernel message) if you manage to boot it.

Are you sure about that?
If so, how can i extract initramfs?

Thanks

aerobahn · Jun 20, 2011

Phk said:
Are you sure about that?
If so, how can i extract initramfs?

Thanks

Did you get it working Phk? Keep us updated

Phk · Jun 20, 2011

Nope!

I PM'd Chainfire asking for help on rebuild initramfs, but he didn't care.
I saw on his CFRoot post that he built a toolchain for recompiling the initramfs, so his stuff would be pretty useful in this case....

.. come on chain, clear us out.. Or include this in your next kernel, whatever.. :\ SUCKS.

nightranger73 · Jun 21, 2011

Phk said:
Nope!

I PM'd Chainfire asking for help on rebuild initramfs, but he didn't care.
I saw on his CFRoot post that he built a toolchain for recompiling the initramfs, so his stuff would be pretty useful in this case....

.. come on chain, clear us out.. Or include this in your next kernel, whatever.. :\ SUCKS.

http://bit.ly/jRSCxJ

Was that hard? You know how many projects he's carrying on? Why he'd have to waste his time for such a simple thing that a Google search can do?

Please if you think I've been too rude re-read the forum rules prior to answer this post... if you've ever done it...

Sent from my Galaxy SII

If you find this post usefull please press the "Thanks" button

How to format Internal SDCard to EXT4?

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