Originally Posted by subham964

Hey can u suggest me a way to directly install apps to sdcard without first installing it to internal memory and den moving it to the ext2 partition.

Android 2.2

Sorry for cross-posting. As my learning attempt, I quickly tried to do by hand what the app is doing. Unfortunately it didn't work for me. Here are the steps I followed, I wonder if anyone can identify where things went wrong.

1. Fresh installed Angry Birds
2. Mounted the ext2 partition of the SD card to /data/sdext2
3. Copied /data/app/com.rovio.angrybirds.apk to /data/sdext2
4. removed original, and created a symbolic link com.rovio.angrybirds.apk -> /data/sdext2/com.rovio.angrybirds.apk
5. This removed Angry birds from my app list, but I thought that's Ok as long as there's adb
6. In adb shell, tried to execute "am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER -n com.rovio.angrybirds/com.rovio.ka3d.App -f 0x10200000"
7. No joy :( it fails with Error: Activity class {com.rovio.angrybirds/com.rovio.ka3d.App} does not exist. If the file was physically present instead of symbolic link, this launches Angry birds


Trying to guess where did I go wrong. I am kind of sure that reboot is not required, because without rebooting I can copy the apk back and forth and launch the application. Anyway I don't have boot script modified that could mount the ext2 on boot (though I did by hand later). Wondering if that matters ...

Originally Posted by kousik

Sorry for cross-posting. As my learning attempt, I quickly tried to do by hand what the app is doing. Unfortunately it didn't work for me. Here are the steps I followed, I wonder if anyone can identify where things went wrong.

1. Fresh installed Angry Birds
2. Mounted the ext2 partition of the SD card to /data/sdext2
3. Copied /data/app/com.rovio.angrybirds.apk to /data/sdext2
4. removed original, and created a symbolic link com.rovio.angrybirds.apk -> /data/sdext2/com.rovio.angrybirds.apk
5. This removed Angry birds from my app list, but I thought that's Ok as long as there's adb
6. In adb shell, tried to execute "am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER -n com.rovio.angrybirds/com.rovio.ka3d.App -f 0x10200000"
7. No joy :( it fails with Error: Activity class {com.rovio.angrybirds/com.rovio.ka3d.App} does not exist. If the file was physically present instead of symbolic link, this launches Angry birds


Trying to guess where did I go wrong. I am kind of sure that reboot is not required, because without rebooting I can copy the apk back and forth and launch the application. Anyway I don't have boot script modified that could mount the ext2 on boot (though I did by hand later). Wondering if that matters ...

Reboot required on 1.6 and 2.1, as stated in the first post.

How it works:
Link2SD mounts ext2 partition of your SD card as /data/sdext2 and makes OS mounts it at boot time. (with /system/etc/install-recovery.sh file)

When you select an application and press "Create Link" button it moves apk file to SD ext2 partition and creates a symbolic link in original directory (/data/app).

Note: After this step, application icon disappears from the phone on Android 1.6 and 2.1, but after reboot you can see and run without problems. On 2.2+ this is not the case.

Originally Posted by bakpinar

Reboot required on 1.6 and 2.1, as stated in the first post.

Thanks, will try the same. To get the benefit of reboot we have to mount the ext2 of SD card during the boot, which I'll take care of. I have seen another error like:

W/asset ( 8283): Asset path /data/app/com.twitter.android.apk is neither a directory nor file (type=0).
W/dalvikvm( 8283): threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001d1c8)

Does that have anything to do with the error? It is a symbolic link (as created), and which is finally causing "java.lang.ClassNotFoundException"?

Ok. I am back and I have totally updated my phone.

Time to test out this latest version. It better work...

Originally Posted by kousik

W/asset ( 8283): Asset path /data/app/com.twitter.android.apk is neither a directory nor file (type=0).
W/dalvikvm( 8283): threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001d1c8)

Does that have anything to do with the error? It is a symbolic link (as created), and which is finally causing "java.lang.ClassNotFoundException"?

Another idea may be to append /data/sdext2 in the CLASSPATH itself. In that case it doesn't have to follow symbolic link through /data/app but the system will search for the apk in /data/sdext2 directly. Anyone know how do we change CLASSPATH? Somewhere in build.prop or local.prop ... ? Thanks!

Hi bakpinar, thanks a lot for link2sd. Great app.

I've to notice a problem on my GT540. After install link2SD, i can't no more move apps from /system/app to /data/app. I use "Supermanger" to move apps, and it says everytime "Not enough free space".... but i think it's not true: i've 28MB free space, and the most big app to move is 5MB.

I need to move some apps from /system/app to /data/app, and then link it to SD. This because link2SD can't link "system application". So... i've thougt to move them in /data/app before link

(I dont know why some 3rd part apps i've installed, have been put in /system/apps and not in /data/app. However... i can't move them in /data/apps )

Ideas?
Thanks

UPDATE:

Good news about market issue...

Android Market doesn't see applications that have been link to SD card. Because a background process marks them as "UNINSTALLED" in the market's database when the link created.

To repair their state I have added "Market Fix" feature.

This will synchronize Android Market database with installed applications and missing market apps will be repaired.

Before starting, make sure market is not running and you're not downloading anything from the market.

NOTE: If some apps are still missing from "My Downloads" afterwards, just install any app from the market and they will show up.

Also added support in detecting and mounting ext2 partition for some roms. If you had previously received ext2 partition or mount error try this version.

You can download version 1.2.0 from the first post.

if I update my phone's firmware can the app relink to ext2 apks?

Great Job, works like a charm on the Sony X8.

@Gx3: I don't think it works that way...