maemo.org - Talk - Repartition the internal drive

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- - Repartition the internal drive (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35122)

Re: Repartition the internal drive

oh i'll fix it thx guys ;) it's about swap partition that didn't mount and do it with mkswap . DONE

Re: Repartition the internal drive

A newbie guide out of the question?

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiptronic (Post 884452)

A newbie guide out of the question?

Can i have one aswell please, or unless Radicalz38 would upload his modified firmware so i could flash my device? Cheers.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Here is my modified eMMC binary for 5GB home partition:
http://www.anonym.to/?http://tonev.n...HOME_MICRO.bin
MD5SUM: d9e7e78e720c09a3a2d5921f4621e71a

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiptronic (Post 884452)

A newbie guide out of the question?

Open the emmc image with a hex editor and change 2048 to what ever you want, then flash the phone using that image.

Easy to do, just make sure you take a backup first.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Hi everybody...
I could need some help here.

I'm on PR1.3 and therefore
tried solution #7 from the wiki but I used a different filetable
see, below

Code:

unit: sectors

/dev/mmcblk0p1 : start=       64, size= 39854080, Id= c

/dev/mmcblk0p2 : start= 39854144, size= 16777216, Id= 5

/dev/mmcblk0p3:  start= 56631360, size=  4194304, Id=83

/dev/mmcblk0p4 : start= 60825664, size=  1572864, Id=82

/dev/mmcblk0p5 : start= 39854160, size=  9765680, Id=83

/dev/mmcblk0p6 : start= 49619856, size=  7011504, Id=83

my question is now, will my phone find /home on mmcblk0p3 or will it look for it on mmcblk0p2 as this was the default partion? Wich leads to my next question; do I probably need to keep those echo lines in

Code:

/etc/event.d/rcS-late under '-f /usr/lib/genfstab.awk > $tmp_fstab'

do I need to edit them to mmcblk0p3 or can I safely remove them?

And last but not least is there eventually another way to copy /home back to emmc?
I don't know why, but my phone keeps crashing/rebooting after about 20 minutes of copying files back from sd card.
(edit: I tried to restore /home with filebox but it gives a lot of copying errors

Quote:

Cannot create symbolic link targeting to source

Hopefully someone can help...

thx in advance,

..::J4ZZ::..

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radicalz38 (Post 875913)

This is just for specifying the storage space for installable applications not for the whole internal flash.. So this is not for making multi partitions. In addition you could repartition mydocs like mine I used partition magic :p
So in short yep use gparted for multi paritioning.

hi..how do u repartition mydocs using partition magic?

i have partition magic installed on my windows laptop..however, when i connect my N900 to the laptop, partition magic did not lists MyDocs..

it only showed my hard drive letters..and no removable drives (MyDocs and Memory Card)..

my laptop's disc drive is fried..so i can't use it to boot into GParted LiveCd..

would u elaborate more on how to use the partition magic?thx

Re: Repartition the internal drive

It is possible to repartition without flashing vanilla image and without loosing data on existing partitions.

Simple use backupmenu v2 with a linux pc (with gparted installed).

This guide can explain how to:
http://translate.google.it/translate...n&hl=&ie=UTF-8

Unfortunately Google's translation is not perfect

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Is the solution #1 (swap /home and MyDocs partition) compatible with PR1.3

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by salazar (Post 894054)

Is the solution #1 (swap /home and MyDocs partition) compatible with PR1.3

If the question is refferred to link I have posted, the answer is NO.

It is a variant of Solution #6: Custom repartitioning from a linux PC

Original Solution 6 use MeeGo rescue image, instead the linked guide use BackupMenu v2 for same purpose

Re: Repartition the internal drive

I meant titans post: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...1&postcount=66
This is same: http://wiki.maemo.org/Repartitioning_the_flash
These are solution #1
Is this compatible with PR1.3?

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Anyone? Look at upper post and answer pls.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Help! My phone rebooted itself when i was doing the solution #1.
It rebooted after this command: cp -a /home/* /mnt # copy contents of /home to large partition.
What should i do? My phone is in confusion.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

I recently managed to repartition nand, emmc and mmc to fit my needs, a simple step by step isn't available. So i decided to include the process i used to do it.
I made a well commented (i hope) step by step tutorial so everyone can follow. The only issue i encountered (and didn't solve) is that when connected to a Pc in mass storage mode, only MyDocs is visible, mmc is not mountable by Pc. Everything else works.
So let's begin
I am using a 8GB mmc, you must adapt numbers for partitions
# the goal is to reach this config :
# nand -> /
# emmc partition 1 (remaining) -> /home/user/MyDocs
# emmc partition 2 (4GB) -> /home
# emmc partition 3 (4GB) -> /usr
# emmc partition 4 (768MB) -> swap
# mmc partition 1 (remaining) -> /media/mmc1
# mmc partition 2 (2GB) -> /var
Edit : no need to customize kernel as stated before
install rootsh or openssh-server (to do it via ssh, if wifi at home)

Code:

sudo gainroot (or ssh as root)

# install nano

Code:

apt-get install nano-opt

# partition /dev/mmcblk1 (tmp)
# n900 seems to mount without asking so some umounts are needed

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

# be carefull you must adapt the following numbers
# p1=512MB (backup MyDocs), p2=1GB (backup /home), p3=5.5GB (not used), p4=768MB (swap)
# I made small partitions to speed the formatting process (remember it's temporary partitionned)

Code:

sfdisk /dev/mmcblk1

0 32768 c

32768 16384 83

49152 169472 83

218624 24576 82

y

# sometimes partitions are not resynch'ed so better reboot

Code:

reboot

# format partitions on /dev/mmcblk1

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk1p1

mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk1p2

mkswap /dev/mmcblk1p4

# parking tmp1 (because of n900 mounting automatically)

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mkdir /media/mmc1/tmp

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

# move /home/user/MyDocs to tmp1

Code:

mkdir /media/mmc1/MyDocs

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/mmc1/MyDocs -o rw,noauto,nodev,noexec,nosuid,noatime,nodiratime,utf8,uid=29999,shortname=mixed,dmask=000,fmask=0133,rodir

cd /home/user

cp -a MyDocs /media/mmc1

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

# move /home in tmp2

Code:

mkdir /media/mmc1/home

mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /media/mmc1/home

cd /

cp -a home /media/mmc1

# prepare reboot

Code:

nano -w /etc/event.d/rcS-late

change

Quote:

fstab=/etc/fstab

Quote:

fstab=/etc/_fstab

Code:

nano -w /etc/fstab

change

Quote:

/dev/mmcblk0p1 -> /dev/mmcblk1p1
/dev/mmcblk0p2 -> /dev/mmcblk1p2
/dev/mmcblk0p3 -> /dev/mmcblk1p4

Code:

swapoff /dev/mmcblk0p3

swapon /dev/mmcblk1p4

reboot

# repair automatically mounted partitions

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

at this point you should have /home, MyDocs and swap on mmc, so emmc can be easily partitionned.

# partition /dev/mmcblk0

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

sfdisk /dev/mmcblk0

0 688256 c

688256 131072 83

819328 131072 83

950400 24576 82

y

# sometimes partitions are not resynch'ed so better reboot

Code:

reboot

# format partitions on emmc

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1

mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p2

mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p3

mkswap /dev/mmcblk0p4

mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

# restore /home/user/MyDocs

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc1/MyDocs -o rw,noauto,nodev,noexec,nosuid,noatime,nodiratime,utf8,uid=29999,shortname=mixed,dmask=000,fmask=0133,rodir

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1

cd /home/user

cp -a MyDocs /media/mmc1

# prepare reboot

Code:

nano -w /etc/fstab

change

Quote:

/dev/mmcblk1p1 -> /dev/mmcblk0p1
/dev/mmcblk1p2 -> /dev/mmcblk0p2
/dev/mmcblk1p4 -> /dev/mmcblk0p4

Code:

swapoff /dev/mmcblk1p4

swapon /dev/mmcblk0p4

reboot

now you have a system with custom /home (4GB) and MyDocs (20GB) with a 3rd partition unused (4GB).
moving /usr is hard but moving /var is harder and will brick (must reflash) if not done carefully.
Moving /usr and /var can be done in one step (without rebooting between), I prefer going slowly but surely

# partition /dev/mmcblk1 (final)
# ! those numbers must be changed for you

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

sfdisk /dev/mmcblk1

0 177664 c

177664 65536 83





y

# sometimes partitions are not resynch'ed so better reboot

Code:

reboot

# format mmc

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk1p1

mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk1p2

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

# move /usr

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

mkdir /media/mmc1/usr

mount /dev/mmcblk0p3 /media/mmc1/usr

cd /

cp -a usr /media/mmc1

# change partitions' tables

Code:

nano -w /etc/fstab

add

Quote:

/dev/mmcblk0p3 /usr ext3 defaults 0 0

Code:

nano -w /etc/init.d/rcS

add before call of mount_devpts (second occurence of this string)

Quote:

mount /usr || echo "Error mounting /usr"

Code:

reboot

# move /var

Code:

umount /dev/mmcblk1p1

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/mmc1/tmp

mkdir /media/mmc1/var

mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /media/mmc1/var

cd /

cp -a var /media/mmc1

# change partition's tables

Code:

nano -w /etc/fstab

add

Quote:

/dev/mmcblk1p2 /var ext3 defaults 0 0

Code:

nano -w /etc/init.d/rcS

add before call of mount_devpts (second occurence of this string)
and before mount /usr

Quote:

mount /var || echo "Erreur montage /var"
rm -rf /var/run/*

Code:

reboot

# remove automatic update

Code:

gconftool -s --type int /apps/hildon/update-notifier/check_interval 2147483647

Now you have changed a phone that can do computers things into a computer than can do phone calls

Good luke and happy hacking

Re: Repartition the internal drive

I didn't know about this method, could have saved me much time, but the tricky part for me was to move /usr and /var loosely discussed by ruskie (I thank him a lot) and an example was given somewhere for n800 (not very usefull for n900). Now that I have moved these directories, I could install sdk (and every software i want) without worrying about rootfs or any partition. Finally, notice that my solution only requires a N900 and fingers.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by brahim98 (Post 905828)

Finally, notice that my solution only requires a N900 and fingers.

Now that gnu parted N900's version exists, even the method I have linked can be done with only a N900 and fingers:)

Of course with a Linux PC is more comfortable and probably faster to do

Re: Repartition the internal drive

For me the motivation wasn't size, as I was satisfied with the partitioning, but I wanted MyDocs in a filesystem that preserves permissions (especially fed up with every file having +x when copied out of there).

I formatted it as ext4, changed a pile of scripts (there are instructions on page 18 of this topic), and actually remembered to change the ownership of the whole filesystem to the user before I even tried to use the camera — meaning I never actually experienced camera issues.

Right now I'm happily using my n900 with an ext4 MyDocs, no problems yet.

One thing I have to note though, since my uid on my work/home computers is obviously not the same, I had to do something to be able to write to MyDocs when mounted with mass storage. Best way to do that was with POSIX ACLs; man setfacl is your friend.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Spoke too soon :-D it worked without flaw... until the next reboot. Now it won't boot no matter what. Playing around with rescue disks and whatnot to figure out my next step...

Re: Repartition the internal drive

can u dd mmcblop2 so that i or we can dd it again without danger? or maybe make a .dep file?

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by brahim98 (Post 905828)

Are /usr and /var for this setup really larger than on my phone???:confused:

Code:

[root@Nokia-N900 ~]# du -kx /usr | sort -n | tail -n 10

7604    /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10

14164   /usr/share/microb-engine/chrome

14844   /usr/share/microb-engine

15632   /usr/share/locale

23352   /usr/lib/locale

24288   /usr/lib/microb-engine

25620   /usr/bin

67504   /usr/share

185396  /usr/lib

285068  /usr

[root@Nokia-N900 ~]# du -k /var | sort -n | tail -n 10

120     /var/lib/hildon-application-manager

192     /var/lib/gconf/apps/osso/hildon-desktop/applets

212     /var/lib/gconf/apps/osso/hildon-desktop

380     /var/lib/gconf/apps/osso

572     /var/lib/gconf/apps

644     /var/lib/gconf

33808   /var/lib/dpkg/info

41040   /var/lib/dpkg

42064   /var/lib

42260   /var

Did you somehow reverse the optifying to use /usr?

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quick reply...
I tried to build kiconedit on N900 itself.
So: I installed subversion, got the source, installed gcc, said "gcc main.cpp", found out that it needs general KDE headers, started copying them one-by-one.
It turned out that kdemacros.h should be generated by cmake. So I copied kdemacros.h.cmake and said
apt-get install cmake

It installed cmake-data and then couldn't find space for cmake

I manually optified cmake-data (if I understand anything in this filesystem at all ;) )

There still wasn't enough space for cmake

Almost all languages in /usr/share/locale were already deleted earlier.

So I thought: what about optifying /usr/lib?

I moved all files from /opt/usr/lib to /usr/lib and then all files from /usr/lib to /opt/usr/lib.
But... /usr/lib/python2.5 and two more folders which actually already are in /opt/pymaemo continued to be mounted in /usr/lib. I wanted to mount them in /opt/usr/lib.
After some mount umount -l bind move.
Mess increased, but /usr/lib empty, and then replaced with symbolic link to /opt/usr/lib

For some time, everything worked, including apt-get

But later, MicroB couldn't open any page at all

I took a wild guess that after reboot nothing will work (why???)

So I backup-ed some most important files (like Hildon menu; I put a lot of effort into customising it with sub-menus) and, just in case, moved photographs tp PC

Reboot
Malfunction
Re-flash
Home isn't harmed, but all applications are gone

Now, my ambitious goal is:
to have all applications optified to the extent that less than half of rootfs is usually used

How can I reach it?

Now 60% are in use.
I have Modrana (and I don't have OSM logger and Marble and OSMapper, and I'm not going to install them)
I have Panorama and MBarcode (and I don't have FrontView, and I'm not going to install it)
I have Fennec and Chromium
I'm going to get Metre and QStarDict
I'm going to get eboard, sudoku and mokomaze (probably; not sure yet)
I'm not going to install Maelophone (I don't think that emulating physical music on an electronic device is worthwhile goal)
I'm not going to install my own half-baked programs: GPS compass and auto-rotation and text editor
I'm not going to install MyPaint, PenPen, and example Qt Text Editor
I have already installed pocketsphinx, and voximp wasn't lost while reflashing
I have tried to install ejpi... but purged it. It's awkward, though innovative.
I'm trying to get aptitude GUI working - then I will not need fapman
I will have to add repositories to HAM again - they were lost.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

@michaaa62 :
This is what I have

Code:

Nokia-N900:~# du -sh /usr

1.2G    /usr

Nokia-N900:~# du -sh /usr/*

4.0k    /usr/X11R6

38.1M   /usr/bin

0       /usr/games

39.7M   /usr/include

270.7M  /usr/lib

488.0k  /usr/libexec

44.0k   /usr/local

16.0k   /usr/lost+found

16.0k   /usr/man

787.8M  /usr/opt

16.0k   /usr/palm

5.2M    /usr/sbin

76.3M   /usr/share

4.0k    /usr/src

80.0k   /usr/var

In my setting, I changed /opt from /home/opt to /usr/opt (700MB) but even without moving /opt the size is more than rootfs can support. I am reverting to classic /home/opt as my phone is often going into infinite reboot when mounting /opt in /usr.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

I really need helppp.....My phone rebooted itself when i was doing the solution #1.
: cp -a /home/* /mnt # copy contents of /home to large partition.
i have tried to restore the entire system but i cant access the MyDoc in File Manager after restoring.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Well, you just had it re-formatted according to the howto, so no wonder it is not there. Go on with copying all of the content of /home to /mnt (after a reboot you have to mount the partition /dev/mmcblk0p1 to /mnt again !!! ) to be sure the copy process was not interrupted.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

but it says not found when mounting plz help

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fabry (Post 906394)

Now that gnu parted N900's version exists, even the method I have linked can be done with only a N900 and fingers:)

Could you pls give the link to gparted on n900.. I did some search on the forum and else where. Could not find it except for this

Re: Repartition the internal drive

@ babieshame:
Short Walkthrough:

Quote:

umount /home/user/MyDocs

This removes MyDocs from the file system, but still all the data on partition /dev/mmcblk0p1 available.

Quote:

sfdisk -c /dev/mmcblk0 1 83

This changes the file sytem type in the partition table from Fat32 to Linux. Still all the data there, but you would get an error after boot.

Quote:

mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p1

This wipes the filesystem and the data from the partition, you would stiill be able to recover with extra effort, like testdisk data recovery tool.

Quote:

mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt

This will make the partition usable for the system again, but will not access your data, but make it possible to overwrite it.

Quote:

cp -a /home/* /mnt

This actually overwrites the data with the stuff from your optfs and the content of /home, but only the empty folder MyDocs is copied!

Quote:

umount /mnt

This unmounts the partition formerly known as MyDocs now containing the optfs.

The howto continous to create a new partition table, here called 'table' for simplicity to get the partitions mounted for the next reboot. After you wrote the table to the device, you are ready to reboot. After the reboot you simply create and then mount the new file system for the now smaller MyDocs partition.

Because you first asked about the cp command i guess there is no MyDocs existing any more. Continue like suggestedin the post above with the howto from the "mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt"-step to achieve a working setup. right now you are in the middle of nowhere.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by shin (Post 922323)

Could you pls give the link to gparted on n900.. I did some search on the forum and else where. Could not find it except for this

parted is not gparted!!! The gparted howto works from a linux desktop/laptop only.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by shin (Post 922323)

Could you pls give the link to gparted on n900.. I did some search on the forum and else where. Could not find it except for this

It is in the repository (version 2.3-1) but it isn't gparted.
For N900 exists only parted (console version)

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Thanks .. I asked about gparted as it was mentioned that n900 version of gnu parted already exists.

On the command line parted, is this the one? would you know if this works without issues, did not see confirmation that it is working fine in the link above

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by shin (Post 922383)

that was testing its missing one or two things...

use the one in my sig;)

Re: Repartition the internal drive

just in case someone is looking for the link 3 years from now and your sig has changed — gnu-parted

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by lalomartins (Post 922411)

just in case someone is looking for the link 3 years from now and your sig has changed — gnu-parted

lol:D... but true thanks:)

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaaa62 (Post 922327)

@ babieshame:
Short Walkthrough:
This removes MyDocs from the file system, but still all the data on partition /dev/mmcblk0p1 available.
This changes the file sytem type in the partition table from Fat32 to Linux. Still all the data there, but you would get an error after boot.
This wipes the filesystem and the data from the partition, you would stiill be able to recover with extra effort, like testdisk data recovery tool.
This will make the partition usable for the system again, but will not access your data, but make it possible to overwrite it.
This actually overwrites the data with the stuff from your optfs and the content of /home, but only the empty folder MyDocs is copied!
This unmounts the partition formerly known as MyDocs now containing the optfs.

The howto continous to create a new partition table, here called 'table' for simplicity to get the partitions mounted for the next reboot. After you wrote the table to the device, you are ready to reboot. After the reboot you simply create and then mount the new file system for the now smaller MyDocs partition.

Because you first asked about the cp command i guess there is no MyDocs existing any more. Continue like suggestedin the post above with the howto from the "mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt"-step to achieve a working setup. right now you are in the middle of nowhere.

thax for ur help but still my /home(MyDocs) cant be seen in the file manager after trying every step you mentioned,,,its only the sdcard available....Do u think that reflashing will help?...but i have windows 7 and i heard flashing doesnt work on it....thx

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Well, if you were or are in the middle of some rebuilding process stuck, there is also some risk to make debugging of flashing errors very difficult. So please lets see the output of

Code:

sudo gainroot

sfdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0

mount

Re: Repartition the internal drive

it didnt show any error after putting the codes,and i just rebooted but still the same,.

Re: Repartition the internal drive

Well..., i wanted to see what changes you made so please paste the output here!

Re: Repartition the internal drive

i cant access the storage,where the screenshoo a being stored.. thats the problem..thxx

Re: Repartition the internal drive

And is copy and paste no option???