A2SD Tutorial Please !!

[Guest Jwalk]

Hi,

I have been looking around to find tutorials about A2SD. I could find a place where all information needed about this hack is gathered.

Sometimes, we need to remeber that most of us using the custom Roms on this forum are "Advanced users", if we had some higher technical knowledge about Android we would have baked our own Roms and hacks.

Now to my question:

We need a sticky guide/tutorial explaning A2SD, how to partition SD card (in detail) and how to check that everything is working.

What I tried, was to partition my SD card with ROM manager. (512MB EXT, 0 SWAP, the rest "3.5GB" FAT32)

then I instaled Paul's r6 Froyo Modaco ROM with A2SD.

I cant see any sucess as the APK's i install take from my internal memory (down to 109MB after installation of one application "Navigon Navigation".

Any help would be appriciated.

EDIT:

I found two ways to do this:

1. With Rom manager, a stright forward procedure where you get to input how much space will go to your EXT (Does not mention if its EXT2/3/4) partition, which should preferably be 512 MB and the size of your SWAP partition, again preferably 0MB. all remaining space will be partitioned as FAT32.

2. Using the following guide by afiorillo guide .

Finally you could check that this is working using App Quick System Info from the market. Thanks to Paulo Noberga for the tip.

Make sure you backup you SD data to your PC as this will erase all data on your SD card.

Edited July 31, 2010 by Jwalk

[Guest iXX]

Hi,

I have been looking around to find tutorials about A2SD. I could find a place where all information needed about this hack is gathered.

Sometimes, we need to remeber that most of us using the custom Roms on this forum are "Advanced users", if we had some higher technical knowledge about Android we would have baked our own Roms and hacks.

Now to my question:

We need a sticky guide/tutorial explaning A2SD, how to partition SD card (in detail) and how to check that everything is working.

What I tried, was to partition my SD card with ROM manager. (512MB EXT, 0 SWAP, the rest "3.5GB" FAT32)

then I instaled Paul's r6 Froyo Modaco ROM with A2SD.

I cant see any sucess as the APK's i install take from my internal memory (down to 109MB after installation of one application "Navigon Navigation".

Any help would be appriciated.

Same here, guide for A2SD / A2SD+ please !

[Guest 325i]

The internal memory will still decrease but more slowly even with A2SD/A2SD+.

[Guest Paulo Nobrega]

The internal memory will still decrease but more slowly even with A2SD/A2SD+.

true.. as far as I know not all apps get installed on SD... U can check ur A2SD+ working with App Quick System Info... Check the free space, install 2 or 3 apps and u will see the space decreasing... That means ur A2SD+ is working...

If some apps dont get installed on SD and u see Internal Storage decreasing u can still move them to SD card with native a2SD on Manage Apps... But, be aware that some may stop working. I did that and some widgets didnt work anymore...

[Guest Nagrom2608]

Okay guys I am REALLY stumped with A2SD.

I've backed a custom Froyo Rom from this very site, and INCLUDED A2SD+ in it.

Rooted, and updated. Everything is working just fine.

Apart from......

There's NO sign of A2SD anywhere.

I've hunted around the net, and most places say I need to ENABLE it through

Settings > Applications >

But I can't see it anywhere.

These same forums say that when you go to an application's settings, there's should be a button that says move to SD Card. I DO have this button, but it's NOT where they say it should be, and it's greyed out.

I know this is a REAL NOOB question, but I am a REAL NOOB when it comes to Rooting, Installing new roms, and A2SD.

Any advice would be GREATLY apriciated

Thanks in advance

Andy.

Edited July 31, 2010 by Nagrom2608

[Guest Odroid]

Okay guys I am REALLY stumped with A2SD.

I've backed a custom Froyo Rom from this very site, and INCLUDED A2SD+ in it.

Rooted, and updated. Everything is working just fine.

Apart from......

There's NO sign of A2SD anywhere.

I've hunted around the net, and most places say I need to ENABLE it through

Settings > Applications >

But I can't see it anywhere.

These same forums say that when you go to an application's settings, there's should be a button that says move to SD Card. I DO have this button, but it's NOT where they say it should be, and it's greyed out.

I know this is a REAL NOOB question, but I am a REAL NOOB when it comes to Rooting, Installing new roms, and A2SD.

Any advice would me GREATLY

Thanks in advance

Andy.

The A2SD(+) you're referring to works transparantly from the Android OS. You won't find any settings for it.

All you need is a EXT3 or 4 partition on the SD-card and all of your apps (and with + also the Dalvik-cache) will be moved to your card.

Partitioning your card can be tricky, since Windows doesn't support the EXT filesystem. You'll have to use the partition-option from the custom recovery menu, or you could use a Linux live-cd. Just download Ubuntu, boot your pc from the disk and use the disk toolset.

With A2SD, installing apps wlll still cost you a small amount of storage from your phone's memory for settings and such, but nowhere near as much as installing the actual apps on there as well.

Android 2.2's own implementation of installing apps to SD is simply an option in Settings -> Applications where you can click the option "Move to SD". This however only works with apps that enabled this feature! For most apps the option is still greyed out, as you mention.

Luckily A2SD works for every app, since the Android OS is told that the Data-partition is actually on the SD-card.

[Guest Nagrom2608]

The A2SD(+) you're referring to works transparantly from the Android OS. You won't find any settings for it.

All you need is a EXT3 or 4 partition on the SD-card and all of your apps (and with + also the Dalvik-cache) will be moved to your card.

Partitioning your card can be tricky, since Windows doesn't support the EXT filesystem. You'll have to use the partition-option from the custom recovery menu, or you could use a Linux live-cd. Just download Ubuntu, boot your pc from the disk and use the disk toolset.

Following the advice from a user on the official droid forums, I partitioned my card using Rom Manager. I can't see any sign of a EXT3 partition. Is this the one that is created when I set it to partition?

I still can't see a "Move to SD Card" button, other than the default one.

Does this mean I've not partitioned my card right?

Sorry for all the noob questions

Edited July 31, 2010 by Nagrom2608

[Guest Odroid]

Following the advice from a user on the official droid forums, I partitioned my card using Rom Manager. I can't see any sign of a EXT3 partition. Is this the one that is created when I set it to partition?

I still can't see a "Move to SD Card" button, other than the default one.

Does this mean I've not partitioned my card right?

Sorry for all the noob questions

No problem. It can be a little difficult to grasp. :-) If you've partitioned your card with ROM Manager, everything is probably working fine.

Best way to check is using an app like Quick System Info. That gives you a clear overview of the disk usage on your A2SD partition. If it's not working, the A2SD Storage will say something like "Not available".

But again: using a rom with A2SD enabled gives you no extra settings for moving your apps to SD. All apps install as normal, only now on the SD-card.

The option "Move to SD Card" in Android 2.2 will still be there in your Application settings, but it's best not to use that option since you've already enabled A2SD.

[Guest kayceejayh]

The quickest and easiest way to partition your card is use ROM Manager - I usually set the partition at 512Mb and the Swap Size as 0Mb. Cook a ROM with A2SD+ and it'll just work - no need to MOVE stuff to the SD card. It just does it. The Quick System Info App will tell you if the A2SD space is working (you'll see it going down as you install apps).

K

[Guest Jwalk]

true.. as far as I know not all apps get installed on SD... U can check ur A2SD+ working with App Quick System Info... Check the free space, install 2 or 3 apps and u will see the space decreasing... That means ur A2SD+ is working...

If some apps dont get installed on SD and u see Internal Storage decreasing u can still move them to SD card with native a2SD on Manage Apps... But, be aware that some may stop working. I did that and some widgets didnt work anymore...

Paulo Nobrega thank you for your replay, this is the best way to check if A2SD is working and according to Quick System Info my A2SD storage is 457/342 MB which means that I am using over 100MB of space :(

I think what makes one unsure if A2SD is that the internal storage does decrease after installation of new application. But this answers my question.

I will edit my first post in this thread to include to two methods I manged to find the past couple of days.

[Guest VeeDubZ]

the other way to check is by using Gscript app from the market and loading the attached script(just remove the .txt extention on the end first)

app2sd_check.sh.txt

[Guest Jwalk]

Thanks :)

[Guest Nagrom2608]

No problem. It can be a little difficult to grasp. :-) If you've partitioned your card with ROM Manager, everything is probably working fine.

Best way to check is using an app like Quick System Info. That gives you a clear overview of the disk usage on your A2SD partition. If it's not working, the A2SD Storage will say something like "Not available".

But again: using a rom with A2SD enabled gives you no extra settings for moving your apps to SD. All apps install as normal, only now on the SD-card.

The option "Move to SD Card" in Android 2.2 will still be there in your Application settings, but it's best not to use that option since you've already enabled A2SD.

Okay so I got Quick System Info, and I CAN see my A2SD storage. So I guess that means the card is partitioned right.

However.....

I'm STILL not getting the option to move any of my apps to my card, Other than the standard Froyo one. I thought that A2SD would place this option on all apps, with the ability to move pretty much all of them. At the moment, the standard option is greyed out on pretty much all of my apps. . As a result, I'm now back to square one, with only just over 15MB free.

HOW the hell do I get this A2SD enabled option of moving the apps to work? This is so frustrating.

Thanks again.

Andy.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Nagrom2608

[Guest kayceejayh]

Okay so I got Quick System Info, and I CAN see my A2SD storage. So I guess that means the card is partitioned right.

However.....

I'm STILL not getting the option to move any of my apps to my card, Other than the standard Froyo one. I thought that A2SD would place this option on all apps, with the ability to move pretty much all of them. At the moment, the standard option is greyed out on pretty much all of my apps. . As a result, I'm now back to square one, with only just over 15MB free.

HOW the hell do I get this A2SD enabled option of moving the apps to work? This is so frustrating.

Thanks again.

Andy.

The old AS2D doesn't give you any option to 'Move to SD' it just does it transparently, your apps are being put on the SD card, their caches and temp files may still go onto the phone memory. The AS2D+ option will also put the dalvik cache on the SD card too saving a bit of space.