virtual sd card and physical sd card!!!

[lohtse]

hopefully will explain this correctly....

Sowa's rom creates a folder at location MNT/Storage called sdcard now this is a virtual sd card that the system uses when no physical card is present and is where you app data files that are downloaded go as is save files(edited pics or notes)and anything else you wish to add and anything else your system creates and saved is located....

Now is there a way to have the physical sdcard mount as a second sdcard? I ask as when you mount it, it takes over from virtual card and hides it from the system which means you have to move things to it for them to work or you have to download and start from scratch.By mounting as a second card it means that lovely space on you internal memory is usable as your primary sdcard plus you not only have whatever size sdcard you use but what ever internal memory to so for instance 5gig internal + 16 gig sdcard = 21gig not 16gig as is the case when you mount the sdacrd due to it hiding and taking over from the virtual sdcard..

Is there away to mount both????

[Finless]

hopefully will explain this correctly....

Sowa's rom creates a folder at location MNT/Storage called sdcard now this is a virtual sd card that the system uses when no physical card is present and is where you app data files that are downloaded go as is save files(edited pics or notes)and anything else you wish to add and anything else your system creates and saved is located....

Now is there a way to have the physical sdcard mount as a second sdcard? I ask as when you mount it, it takes over from virtual card and hides it from the system which means you have to move things to it for them to work or you have to download and start from scratch.By mounting as a second card it means that lovely space on you internal memory is usable as your primary sdcard plus you not only have whatever size sdcard you use but what ever internal memory to so for instance 5gig internal + 16 gig sdcard = 21gig not 16gig as is the case when you mount the sdacrd due to it hiding and taking over from the virtual sdcard..

Is there away to mount both????

Yes this is a problem somewhat.
/mnt/storage is all your left over internal memory. sdcard is a "folder" in that mount. When you plug in a real SDCard it takes away that folder leaving anything it in as unusable memory. HOWEVER, if nothing was in it, you do not loose the memory.

To see this use a root file explorer that shows you used and free space for anything in /mnt
Do not have a SDcard inserted.
Now open /mnt/storage.
Root file explorer tells me I have 1gb free and 23mb used. I have 23mb of files in the sdcard folder.
Now insert an sdcard.
Yep sure as hell, the old sdcard folder and the files I had in it are gone and replaced by the real sdcard.
Again open /mnt/storage. It still says 1gb free 23mb used. So YES you lost the 23mb used in files.

HOWEVER..... Do this again.
remove the real sdcard
delete any files in the /mnt/storage/sdcard
look at /mnt/storage. Mine now says 1.23gb free. So all my memory is free.
Now insert the real sdcard. /mnt/storage still says 1.23gb free.

SO I DID NOT loose any memory! The only time you loose memory is if you had something inside of the fake sdcard. If you did not, you don't loose any memory.

So why is this?
It is for Gingerbread compatability. Older Apps and stuff MUST have a /sdcard no matter what. Without that some apps and stuff will not work period. It's stupid I know but is a design issue.

If you look in init.rc this is what is happening

export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /mnt/storage/sdcard

# Backwards Compat - XXX: Going away in G*
symlink /mnt/storage/sdcard /sdcard
symlink /mnt/storage /flash
symlink /mnt/udisk /udisk

/sdcard is a symbolic link and is there for compatability with older apps that always expected a /sdcard.
/flash is also there for backwards compatability.

We could remove that line in init.rc but then you could have a risk of apps that wont work. I suppose you could try it as you may not have an app that requires it? But I have a feeling it wont be too happy about it.

The best bet is to always have a physical sdcard and you will never loose any memory to the fake one.

But, I had a ICS ROM apart and noticed they somehow got rid of that hanky panky. I may look into it but it is probably a kernel change handling it now. Might be fun to see if we can dump that.

Bob

[lohtse]

in short then the answer is NO... We have to loose the internal space(5.3gig in my case) because of the sdcard.....

This is extremely annoying as would have solved the read/write issue am having on Sowa's rom and given me a shed load of space for films,pdfs,books,music etc as it stands to use any app on the rom that requires write access I have to eject the damn card to use them which is so pointless having the damn thing anyway...

Jeez this is bloody stupid...

I know it is possible on Archos tablets as thats how itt works on my 101 tab. You insert a card and it creates and addition folder in mnt/storage/sdcard/ called wait for it SDCARD! which is you actual sd card....

[Finless]

Do you have a 101 tab ROM I can look at? I might be able to see what the heck they are doing.
So on that Tab does it have the /sdcard folder if no sdcard is inserted?

ALso does the stock ROM for the 8G2 have this problem as well? e.g. physical sdcard is RO? Or is this just SOWA's ROM?

Bob

[lohtse]

Do you have a 101 tab ROM I can look at? I might be able to see what the heck they are doing.
So on that Tab does it have the /sdcard folder if no sdcard is inserted?

Also does the stock ROM for the 8G2 have this problem as well? e.g. physical sdcard is RO? Or is this just SOWA's ROM?

Bob

head over to xda and they are in the archos gen8 section am using the urukdroid rom but was the same on stock image in the way it see's sdcards... as to RO issue for some reason I can't get it to restore stock image always comes up with invalid image or something like that so I gave it.... And as the Morka image I tried is still way to buggy didn't find out as didn't leave it flashed long enough to try....

[Finless]

So wait... I did not understand.

Has this sdcard RO issue always been a problem or not?
Previous SOWA ROMs always had this? Or just his latest ROM?

Please do this for me so I can see whats going on.

Go to Google Play store and download an app called
Terminal Emulator
Install and run it.
AT the screen you will get a prompt $
type su
prompt will now be #
type cat /proc/mounts
You will be listed with all the mounts. sdcard should be there.
please tell me exactly what that line says for sdcard:
Mine says
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw, dirsync,nosuid,nodev, etc etc etc etc..... I dont need all the other stuff. The key thing is mine says vfat rw (rw meaning read and write.

What does yours say?

Bob

[lohtse]

So wait... I did not understand.

Has this sdcard RO issue always been a problem or not?
Previous SOWA ROMs always had this? Or just his latest ROM?

Please do this for me so I can see whats going on.

Go to Google Play store and download an app called
Terminal Emulator
Install and run it.
AT the screen you will get a prompt $
type su
prompt will now be #
type cat /proc/mounts
You will be listed with all the mounts. sdcard should be there.
please tell me exactly what that line says for sdcard:
Mine says
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw, dirsync,nosuid,nodev, etc etc etc etc..... I dont need all the other stuff. The key thing is mine says vfat rw (rw meaning read and write.

What does yours say?

Bob

Actually don't know if issue always been there as only recently needed to use an sdcard as was running out of space...
any way it says
dev/block/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat ro, dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid= blah blah blah


and as have stated in another post that any card I use is RO but can copy delete etc if connected to pc

[Finless]

Interesting...
dev/block/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat ro,

why the heck would it mount sdcard as RO

Thats your problem.

Try this please. Go into the settings > Storage > click Unmount SD card.
Wait for it to finish.
Now go back and click Mount SD card.

Go back into the terminal emulator and do the cat /proc/mounts command again.

It should say rw?
dev/block/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw,

Bob

[lohtse]

Interesting...
dev/block/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat ro,

why the heck would it mount sdcard as RO

Thats your problem.

Try this please. Go into the settings > Storage > click Unmount SD card.
Wait for it to finish.
Now go back and click Mount SD card.

Go back into the terminal emulator and do the cat /proc/mounts command again.

It should say rw?
dev/block/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw,

Bob

its always Read only....... no matter how many times I do as you have suggested....


Sorry I tell a lie if I reformat the cards(4 of them) occasionally the first time you use them they are RW but after about 5-10mins of use they become RO..

[Finless]

OK I have a fix for you for now.

Here is what you need to do and you MUST follow this to the letter for it to work

In the terminal once again type
su
cat /proc/mounts

Now look very carefully at the sdcard mount. You will need what it says exactly to use this remount command.
Mine says:
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard

Now you will type in this command using the above info for what yours said

mount -o rw,remount -t vfat /dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard

When you hit enter you should get NO errors.
Now if you do the cat /proc/mounts command again this time sdcard should say
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw,

Let me know.
Bob

[lohtse]

OK I have a fix for you for now.

Here is what you need to do and you MUST follow this to the letter for it to work

In the terminal once again type
su
cat /proc/mounts

Now look very carefully at the sdcard mount. You will need what it says exactly to use this remount command.
Mine says:
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard

Now you will type in this command using the above info for what yours said

mount -o rw,remount -t vfat /dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard

When you hit enter you should get NO errors.
Now if you do the cat /proc/mounts command again this time sdcard should say
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw,

Let me know.
Bob

right done as you have said and has worked BUT last bit off text when checking states errors=remounts-ro 0 0


does this mean at a reboot it will be RO?

[Finless]

Yes it will be RO because the rom is doing that not the erros part.
For now you will need ro run that command after every reboot.
The errors part is OK mine has that too. What that means is if the sdcard has some file structure errors it will mount as RO. Again mine is like that too but I do not have a ro problem. However if you have something that is causing sdcard errors, then this could be your ultimate problem!!! I am betting that is it. You said the card works fine for a while then goes RO.

You will cause errors if you do the following
1) Physically removing the card from the tablet BEFORE unmounting it! That is guaranteed to jack up the sdcards file structure. You must unmount it in setting menu before removing it.
2) Unplugging it from a PC reader without ejecting it from Windows!!! Again this too will jack up the file system
3) Installing an app that may be causing the file structure to get messed up. So you could have a bad app doing it?

Bob

[lohtse]

Yes it will be RO because the rom is doing that not the erros part.
For now you will need ro run that command after every reboot.
The errors part is OK mine has that too. What that means is if the sdcard has some file structure errors it will mount as RO. Again mine is like that too but I do not have a ro problem. However if you have something that is causing sdcard errors, then this could be your ultimate problem!!! I am betting that is it. You said the card works fine for a while then goes RO.

You will cause errors if you do the following
1) Physically removing the card from the tablet BEFORE unmounting it! That is guaranteed to jack up the sdcards file structure. You must unmount it in setting menu before removing it.
2) Unplugging it from a PC reader without ejecting it from Windows!!! Again this too will jack up the file system
3) Installing an app that may be causing the file structure to get messed up. So you could have a bad app doing it?

Bob

yep and if I delete or even edit a file it causes it to become read only!!!!!!! this is not a fix or even a do able work around as it means ever 5mins am having to re-enter the command.. and when you consider the os will alter files it means every time I turn the tab on I have to start this process....

What is causing it??? and why is it not remounting???and why only on this tablet is the issue happening...On our Archos 101,70 plus disgo6000 this never happens! or even our phones....it's a damn nightmare!!!As to a bad app!!!! Jeez I have 448 apps installed where the heck do I start and even then almost ALL are installed on our phones and other tabs yet no issues!

[Sowa]

If you look closely at the mount options, the end of the present value of errors=remount-ro 0 0
Accordingly, if there are errors in the SD-card or internal flash system remount this partition in RO.
I'm such a situation is not encountered. Maybe it's some kind of action from the user-defined programs or defective flash cards.
Can certainly improve init.rc removing error handling, but is it good?

/dev/block/vold/31:9 /mnt/storage vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,nodiratime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,nodiratime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

[lohtse]

If you look closely at the mount options, the end of the present value of errors=remount-ro 0 0
Accordingly, if there are errors in the SD-card or internal flash system remount this partition in RO.
I'm such a situation is not encountered. Maybe it's some kind of action from the user-defined programs or defective flash cards.
Can certainly improve init.rc removing error handling, but is it good?

/dev/block/vold/31:9 /mnt/storage vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,nodiratime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/storage/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,nodiratime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

HI ~Sowa

Just reflashed back to v5sRC rom and without any user apps installed the Read Only error is there! (on your new rom before or the trouble card is rewritable).... As to defective card well that would be an explanation if it was only one card but the error happens on 4 different cards and brands! And the cards work perfectly in all other tablets and cameras...A

Anyway the question was is there away to mount both the virtual sdcard and physical card TOGETHER!? It works fine on archos tablets both are there and usable.