CompCache - userinit

[bdb4269]

This is a method I just cooked up for how to completely repartition your SD card (or even switch to a new SD card) -- and not loose all your apps and stuff (since ext3 partition will be deleted and remade)

I tried to make these instructions basic enough for just about anyone to follow -- but if you want to be safe -- read through, and see if anything seems too unclear for you.... (if so, feel free to ask -- maybe I can clarify this post)

This method assumes that you have Cyan's recovery image

BE WARNED: I have not tried this in full, because I already had a swap partition. I do work with a linux server at work, so I am fairly familiar with the basics of linux -- but I am a newb, when it comes to android. The method below should work in theory. But I don't totally understand how android and APPS2SD works -- so there is like a 1% chance there could be some kink. Worst case scenario -- you have to reflash, and install apps from MyBackupPro, or similar, etc etc.
EDIT [08/10/09]: I have now performed this from start to finish, and it worked perfectly. Follow the instructions and you should be fine.


Here we go....

First make sure you have a decent bit of free space on your SD card -- (i have maybe 20-30 apps, and I needed about 60MB free for this) If you have a ton of apps, probably good to have a couple hundred MB free on your SDcard before beginning.

So first thing is first -- reboot into recovery.

Do a nandroid backup
(but be warned we are still messing with things nandroid does not backup AFAIK. But this howto is specifically designed to put everything nandroid does not backup, back into place, after repartition is done)

Go into console (in recovery still) and do the following

mount -t vfat /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
mount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system/sd
cd /system/sd
tar cvf /sdcard/ext3.tar *

This will take a while to run (maybe a few minutes) -- files names will scroll the the screen -- just wait until you get back to a prompt.


Then reboot the phone -- hook up via USB, and now copy everything from the SD to an empty folder on your computer. (make sure you see the ext3.tar file there)

Once everything is backed up -- you can now follow the instructions found on XDA forums to repartition the sdcard.

(IF you are following these steps to switch to a new SD card without loosing your apps -- this is where you should switch SD cards.)


Following quote from http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...59#post4095359
I quoted it below -- so you DON'T have to follow the link (thanks to durhamite for directing me to this link)
NOTE: I have edited the quote --- to make it a tad more clear

use Cyanogen's recovery image it is awesome!

Formatting you SDcard

You need Recovery image 1.31 [or 1.4] to do this folks!

To format card SD card with linux-swap WARNING!!! this will reformat you entire SD card!!

You can use the recovery console and parted to format SDcards with 1.31 [or 1.4] folks,

here is an example of how to do this in recovery console using parted. DO NOT USE MORE THAN 32MB SWAP!!!

Reboot and enter recovery
Enter console


[Use one of the three examples below based on your card size -- and then regardless of what example you follow -- make sure to complete the steps at the end of this quote]


NOTE: type carefully. You can not backspace in parted

Example for 8GB card (this example plays it safe and will leave a small amount leftover regardless of the 8GB card)

#parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
print (to verfiy we know what size card we are dealing with, the details should be straight forward)
rm 1
rm 2
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7200
mkpartfs primary ext2 7200 7700
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 7700 7732
print (to verify we have the 3 partitions)

Example for my 4GB card

#parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
print (to verfiy we know what size card we are dealing with, the details should be straight forward)
rm 1
rm 2
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 3420
mkpartfs primary ext2 3420 3932
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 3932-3964
print (to verify we have the 3 partitions)

Example for a 2GB card playing it safe

#parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
print (to verify we know what size card we are dealing with, the details should be straight forward)
rm 1
rm 2
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 1200
mkpartfs primary ext2 1200 1700
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 1700-1732
print (to verify we have the 3 partitions)

[regardless of what example you follow -- pick back up here]

Next we need to "quit" parted to get back to a regular prompt and upgrade our ext2 partition to ext3

#upgrade_fs


For a longer more detailed parted turorial read this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534714

Make sure you did the upgrade_fs command at the end

Once that is done -- boot the phone back up
NOTE: your app icons and stuff will be messed up on the home screen -- ignore this for now
Just hook up via USB, and copy the files back to the sdcard from your computer (make sure ext3.tar is included)
Then unhook from USB and reboot back into recovery

Once in recovery...

restore the nandroid backup you made earlier

and repair ext file systems

then go into the recovery console and do the following.

umount /sdcard

If the above command returns an error -- do not worry about it. Just means you probably did not have to run it

mount -t vfat /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
mount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system/sd
cd /system/sd
tar xvpf /sdcard/ext3.tar

it will scroll a bunch of file names -- just wait for it to get back to a prompt.

Then it's probably best to go back to the main recovery menu and do a "repair ext file systems"

Then boot back up normal -- and if all went well - everything should be how it was before. Except now you have a swap partition. And thus can do things that you need a swap partition for.... like setting up backing_swap as instructed in the first post.

[crazythunder]

personally, i deleted my swap and didn't really notice any difference. i never ran benchmarks etc., but maybe it makes a huge difference running a theme with alot of widgets open. on a basic install with one of cyans roms, my eyes could not see a speed difference. blah,maybe i'm just getting too old to tell?

[bdb4269]

personally, i deleted my swap and didn't really notice any difference. i never ran benchmarks etc., but maybe it makes a huge difference running a theme with alot of widgets open. on a basic install with one of cyans roms, my eyes could not see a speed difference. blah,maybe i'm just getting too old to tell?

crazythunder has a point folks....

enabling backing_swap is not necessarily going to make your phone run like magic all of a sudden.

The howto's I have posted are mostly for people who are interested, to tinker/tweak. I am just trying to enable curious minds

And if anyone decides to pioneer and tinker around with different settings and configs (like setting different memlimits or swapiness etc) and finds particularly good settings / configs -- just let the rest of us know

[SilleeString]

Right now, I'm running on just the compcache, and things are going great. The instructions posted above are VERY easy to understand, so if I'm feeling brave or particularly curious one day, I'm going for it with confidence.

This is great work, bdb, and it's greatly appreciated!

[bdb4269]

Right now, I'm running on just the compcache, and things are going great. The instructions posted above are VERY easy to understand, so if I'm feeling brave or particularly curious one day, I'm going for it with confidence.

This is great work, bdb, and it's greatly appreciated!

Thanks! Good to know it's easy to understand.... I am never quite sure about that

I actually need to repartition, just to shrink my swap partition a good bit. (I was a little over zealous when I first partitioned.)

So when I get time I will actually be trying out my howto in post 31 start to finish -- so I can know 100% there are no kinks and take some of the warnings off of it

[bdb4269]

In practice, I found that backing_swap was making my phone really laggy, and making me have to reboot regularly. Though this might have been because I had a swap partition way to large.

Anyway --- I just repartitioned**, to make a smaller swap partition, and will see how things go.


** I used the method I posted in post 31 (http://androidcommunity.com/forums/232988-post31.html) that lets you repartition without loosing your apps. So the method has now been tested from start to finish, and it worked great.

[SilleeString]

I should share that I went without compcache at all, and yeah...not so good. I went crawling back. Is it light years better? Not really, but it certainly is significantly better.

[P-Unit87]

Everytime i follow these steps whether its here or another thread, i get rmzcontrols not found. I dont know what to do?

su
sh /system/sd/userinit.sh -s
I try doing this to check the status, it says ramzswap: no such file or directory

[bdb4269]

Everytime i follow these steps whether its here or another thread, i get rmzcontrols not found. I dont know what to do?

are you typing "rzscontrol" or "rmzcontrol"?

(it should be "rzscontrol")

[P-Unit87]

rzscontrol