Since some of you are curious about how Celtic and I originally put together a CM7 SDcard, this post will walk you through our method. For now this is more of a placeholder that I will update as I find the time so please be patient and check back.
I can't guarantee that this method will cure any SDcard booting woes that some of you are having, but this method will give a more in depth look at the process. Celtic's SDcard image method, posted on the OP, is still the preferred method.
Step 1 - Format and Partition SDcard.
Using the partitioning software of your choice (I recommend GParted for Linux) follow these steps:
1. Create a new MSDOS partition table on your sdcard (Note: This essentially formats the card and will wipe all data on it)
2. Create a Primary FAT32 partition that is 50MB named "boot"
3. Create a second Primary EXT4 partition that is at least 1 GB (preferebly 2 GB) called "system"
4. Create a third Primary EXT4 partition that is at least 1 GB (preferably 2 GB+) called "data"
5. Create a fourth Primary FAT32 partition using the remaining SDcard space called "sdcard"
6. After all partitions have been created, enable the "lda" and "boot" flags on the first partition.
Step 2 - Initialize Boot Partition.
1. Download this archive: (link comming soon)
2. Extract all contents to the first partition on the sdcard ("boot")
The files here include the boot.img, which consists of the kernel and the ramdisk (the files that initialize the device), and the u-boot initialization and security bypass files.
Step 3 - Initialize System Partition.
1. Download this archive: (link coming soon)
2. Extract all contents to the second partition on the sdcard ("system")
Note: You will need administrator access (sudo for the linux users) to extract this archive due to the rights associated with the system files.
These files are all of the files that define this build of Android. They can be tweaked but use caution.
Step 4 - Initialize Data Partition.
1. Open the third partition of the sdcard ("data") with a file explorer
2. Create an empty folder at the root of this partition called "cache" (you may need administrator access). The folder name here is case sensitive!
This partition will be auto populated on the first boot. This is where all of the 'internal' data will be stored while running off of the sdcard. We designed the sdcard build to trick the system into believing that this third sdcard partition is actually internal memory. Thus, apps can access external storage without actually interfering with the device storage. Should you ever have issues that require you to wipe your data simply delete all the files found on this partition.
The cache folder that you created simply tricks the system into using that folder as cache so the internal device cache is not interfered with.
Step 5 - Insert SDcard and boot
Done! Congrats! You have just built an SDcard manually.
I'll do my best to keep this post up to date with latest releases but no guarantees