ClockWorkMod Recovery : "Could not mount sd-ext. sd-ext backup may not be supported on this device"

[Guest hmcguirk]

Hi,

I recently made the jump to CM7.1 KANG Oct24th, with ClockworkMod 5.0.2.0. All seems to be working very well.

But then I tried to do a ClockworkMod backup, just like I've always done. It worked through all the partitions, until sd-ext. I then get the following error:

"Could not mount sd-ext. sd-ext backup may not be supported on this device. Skipping backup of sd-ext" followed by the usual "Generating md5 sum..."

I think I created the SDCard partitions using ClockWorkMod, so I have a 1024MB Ext4. It is my understanding that Ext4 is supported. It must be, as (I think) I used Clockwork to create the partition. I'm not certain about that, as I was also experimenting with GParted to create partitions. But had the same problem.

I am using Link2SD to move some apps to sd-card, so without sd-ext partition, the backup is incomplete!

Anyone seen this? Any ideas what might be wrong? Or how to fix it?

Thanks.

Btw, I do notice my /cache partition is only 2MB. Does the backup process use this? I only ask as once I get the above error, it is followed with an error about writing a log somewhere inside /cache, but it cannot, as the device is full.

Can I resize the cache partition? Or do I need to?

[Guest t0mm13b]

Hi,

I recently made the jump to CM7.1 KANG Oct24th, with ClockworkMod 5.0.2.0. All seems to be working very well.

But then I tried to do a ClockworkMod backup, just like I've always done. It worked through all the partitions, until sd-ext. I then get the following error:

"Could not mount sd-ext. sd-ext backup may not be supported on this device. Skipping backup of sd-ext" followed by the usual "Generating md5 sum..."

That is a normal message - no remedial action required! :)

Btw, I do notice my /cache partition is only 2MB. Does the backup process use this? I only ask as once I get the above error, it is followed with an error about writing a log somewhere inside /cache, but it cannot, as the device is full.

Can I resize the cache partition? Or do I need to?

That has nothing to do with the error message above!

Don't go thinking that something is wrong, there is nothing wrong!

No further remedial action is needed and thus, no need to do anything! :)

[Guest plegdroid]

would a partition be needed to move apps to sdcard? from 2.2 would these not be moved to the android secure folder :)

Edited October 28, 2011 by plegdroid

[Guest hmcguirk]

That is a normal message - no remedial action required! :)

Thanks.

But, it said sd-ext backup has been skipped! Are you saying the error message is incorrect? I have apps on there that I do want backed up.

[Guest Lister Of Smeg]

Hi OP,

I've had exactly the same problem on both Gen1 and Gen2 versions of CM7.... although not always. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt.... I asked about it too, and tried searching every where, until came to a blank. Then found the fault/solution via another phone, its the Recovery Image, as most are not compatible with the SD-Ext partition, and so yes it will skip that part. It will backup all of ya ROM/Partitions, but it will leave out your SD-Ext and so wont have a copy of that. Its a case of finding the right Recovery Image.

[Guest hmcguirk]

Hi OP,

I've had exactly the same problem on both Gen1 and Gen2 versions of CM7.... although not always. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt.... I asked about it too, and tried searching every where, until came to a blank. Then found the fault/solution via another phone, its the Recovery Image, as most are not compatible with the SD-Ext partition, and so yes it will skip that part. It will backup all of ya ROM/Partitions, but it will leave out your SD-Ext and so wont have a copy of that. Its a case of finding the right Recovery Image.

Thanks. For anyone who stumbles across this in the future, here is how I 'fixed' the problem...

Short Answer:

I factory reset the phone, and deleted the partitions on SDCard, recreated them on phone, giving me a 15GB Fat32, and 1GB ext3. I then installed Link2SD, and made sure to skip S2E completely (see below), and it all worked.

Long Answer:

Following your experiences, I decided to try downgrading ClockworkMod from 5.0.2.0 to 3.0.2.7 using Rom Manager. It didnt help.

So I took a closer look at the partitions that were created, and how they were mounted by Ubuntu and by my phone. It turns out :

Every 2nd partition (i.e my ext partition) I created through GParted, whether ext4, ext3, ext2 or even fat32, was being mounted by my phone as ext4. In doing so, those partitions became corrupted. So when I looked at them again in GParted, they were listed as ext4, and sometimes could not be mounted at all, giving other errors.

So them ClockworkMod would not backup them up as either 1. it simply because they were ext4, and/or 2. they looked corrupt.

The question is why they were always mounted as ext4?

I dont know. But my suspicion is that I did install S2E before, and did try to get it working with an ext4 partition (before I realised ClockworkMod may not like ext4) So maybe some sort of mount script was left over, after uninstall, that confused it. Or similarly, maybe the scripts created by Link2SD (when I was first working with ext4) did the same.

So I wiped the phone. What ever was confusing the phone was then gone. It then had no problem mounting ext3 partitions correctly as ext3, which meant no corruption, and ClockworkMod then worked correctly.

[Guest plegdroid]

Thanks. For anyone who stumbles across this in the future, here is how I 'fixed' the problem...

Short Answer:

I factory reset the phone, and deleted the partitions on SDCard, recreated them on phone, giving me a 15GB Fat32, and 1GB ext3. I then installed Link2SD, and made sure to skip S2E completely (see below), and it all worked.

Long Answer:

Following your experiences, I decided to try downgrading ClockworkMod from 5.0.2.0 to 3.0.2.7 using Rom Manager. It didnt help.

So I took a closer look at the partitions that were created, and how they were mounted by Ubuntu and by my phone. It turns out :

Every 2nd partition (i.e my ext partition) I created through GParted, whether ext4, ext3, ext2 or even fat32, was being mounted by my phone as ext4. In doing so, those partitions became corrupted. So when I looked at them again in GParted, they were listed as ext4, and sometimes could not be mounted at all, giving other errors.

So them ClockworkMod would not backup them up as either 1. it simply because they were ext4, and/or 2. they looked corrupt.

The question is why they were always mounted as ext4?

I dont know. But my suspicion is that I did install S2E before, and did try to get it working with an ext4 partition (before I realised ClockworkMod may not like ext4) So maybe some sort of mount script was left over, after uninstall, that confused it. Or similarly, maybe the scripts created by Link2SD (when I was first working with ext4) did the same.

So I wiped the phone. What ever was confusing the phone was then gone. It then had no problem mounting ext3 partitions correctly as ext3, which meant no corruption, and ClockworkMod then worked correctly.

thanks for actually sharing how you got to fix it, there are to many thread s left with no outcome to the problem, and yes will help other s :D

[Guest oldfella]

this has been very useful as I also have this problem.  I flashed CM7 and installed S2E - everything worked OK and apps went to ext fine.  Then I noticed that Clockworkmod wouldnt backup the ext partition, and not surprisingly titanium and appextractor showed no interest in restoring apps from the clockworkmod backup.  As ext is working OK my plan is to wait until the next wipe, then reformat ext and install link2sd

Edited November 6, 2011 by oldfella