Saving space on the 2.1 ROMs

[Guest Stevos]

Since we're not blessed with vast space on the pulse, and could use any extra we can get for apps, I've been poking around to see if there's anything obvious that can be cut out of the 2.1 ROM without any serious issues.

Looking in the /System/Media folder shows up some obvious candidates for removal.

There's 3.5Mb of audio in there which could probably largely be safely removed (might be worth keeping one alarm / notification on there to keep functionality if people don't use an SD card, and then people can use other tones as desired from their card)

Similarly there's 1.1Mb of wallpapers that are probably mainly unnecessary. I think wallpapers can run fine from the SD?

Also the bootanimation.zip file seems to have quite a few unnecessary (duplicate) frames in it, I posted a version with them cut out here which saves another 225Kb (I think it works okay, and should look pretty much the same...)

http://android.modaco.com/content-page/310...screen/page/20/

So that's potentially nearly 5Mb extra for preinstalled apps (or nicer boot animations, such as Rem1x's, or something useful) without even looking into the depths of the system (obviously only remove stuff if you know what you're doing - I don't :( )

Can anyone see any other good places where savings could be made? If we can find any obvious chaff it could help make the MCR and other custom ROMs smaller and more efficient.

Just a thought...

[Guest Rem1x]

Docs to Go takes a stupid amount of space, if I remember correctly!

[Guest gusthy]

Docs to Go takes a stupid amount of space, if I remember correctly!

Yup.

But very useful.

If one has A2SD, it can be simply moved there.

[Guest Richard_Arkless]

What I dont understand is why it isnt possible to change the sizes of the system and the data partitions ourselves it is after all a linux system, perhaps something can be implemented under the recovery bit like when we partition the sd card

If it was possible then we could get rid of some stuff under system then provide more space for data

Edit also look at my rom, Ive looked round the system folder and removed things that could either be moved to data or removed them fully so your free to use it and improve on it

Edited May 31, 2010 by Richard_Arkless

[Guest Daniel Williamson]

Touchpal language packs aswell...

Dan

[Guest Stevos]

Hey I just found a curious little file in /System/Cust

(The operator customisations and regional stuff is probably too small to get much benefit from removing, compared to the benefit of it to people in different regions.)

The file is called apk_name_need_to_disable.xml , and I'm wondering if it's a list of apps that have been banned by operators / networks for various reasons, or if it's a hangover from the installation process, or something else weird...

• teleNAV.apk
  
• TopAppsInstaller.apk
  
• WNW.apk
  
• MusicShop.apk
  
• Facebook1.1.2.apk
  
• NaviGate.apk
  
• Wisepilotvon.apk
  
• MobileTV.apk
  
• DMClient.apk
  

[Guest Stevos]

What I dont understand is why it isnt possible to change the sizes of the system and the data partitions ourselves it is after all a linux system, perhaps something can be implemented under the recovery bit like when we partition the sd card

It's presumably possible as the UPDATA.APP files do it.

I'm pretty sure it can't be done from a running android system as the partitions will be mounted and it would cause chaos, but if we (when I say "we" I mean people cleverer than me) could figure out how the UPDATA system does it, full UPDATA ROMs could be made with partition resizing...

If the UPDATAs resize existing partitions it might be possible to run from a hypothetical recovery console, but I suspect they delete the partitions and recreate them, which would mean it could only be done from a full system install / upgrade package.

Ooh... ooh. In an ideal world, the recovery console would be able to repartition the system and cook / install ROMs based on SD card contents... Now I think it might need someone very clever indeed to get that working :(

Edited May 31, 2010 by Stevos

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

Hey I just found a curious little file in /System/Cust

(The operator customisations and regional stuff is probably too small to get much benefit from removing, compared to the benefit of it to people in different regions.)

The file is called apk_name_need_to_disable.xml , and I'm wondering if it's a list of apps that have been banned by operators / networks for various reasons, or if it's a hangover from the installation process, or something else weird...

• teleNAV.apk
  
• TopAppsInstaller.apk
  
• WNW.apk
  
• MusicShop.apk
  
• Facebook1.1.2.apk
  
• NaviGate.apk
  
• Wisepilotvon.apk
  
• MobileTV.apk
  
• DMClient.apk
  

Arent most of those included anyway apart from facebook and telenav although we got a free telenav trial with out pulses...