Sd Card Mount Point modification discussion. Post-Root

[Maine_Coon]

Strange.
Mine is fine and has some stuff on it.

 

[probbiethe1]

When you copy all of the stuff over from the internal to the external sd card do you then delete it? And when you create an external folder do you put anything in it

Sent from my VTAB1008

 

[Maine_Coon]

When you copy all of the stuff over from the internal to the external sd card do you then delete it? And when you create an external folder do you put anything in it

Sent from my VTAB1008

I did not delete anything from the internal.
I applied the mod (modified fstab file) and that was it.

Made Nandroid backup before doing so.

 

[probbiethe1]

Mmm interesting, I did a nandroid back up first too, thats a must. I will look over the file I edited to make sure I did it correct. But at least I have the internal storage working

Sent from my VTAB1008

 

[Maine_Coon]

Mmm interesting, I did a nandroid back up first too, thats a must. I will look over the file I edited to make sure I did it correct. But at least I have the internal storage working

Sent from my VTAB1008

There are 2 fstab files somewhere in this thread posted by marvin02.
They work fine.
just copy them to your /system/etc or whatever it is w/ Root Explorer or something.
Then you can go back and forth between external being internal and internal being internal..

 

[probbiethe1]

First of all thanks alot! After much tinkering I got your solution to work.

What I'm now seeing is:

-Settings/ SD Card & Device Storage/
The option to Mount or Erase SD Card
Total and Available space are both 'unavailable'

-Internal storage
Total space is now 29.71GB
Available Space

-Application storage
Available space 487MB

This is the exact same problem i am having. Has any body found a fix

 

[Claymoses]

You make this mod at your own risk. What worked for other users may not work for you.

Please note: mucking around in system files can cause your device to become unusable, a brick, toast (with no jelly), and mess it up bad. You accept all risk if you try this!!!!!!!

Here is what I did:

1. Moved all of my apps that were "moved to Sd" back to the device
2. Connected the VTAB to my PC with USB cable
3. Mounted both the internal storage and SD card as USB Storage
4. Copied everything from the internal storage to the Sd card
5. Create a folder on the exterenal SD Card named "external"
6. Unmount both the internal storage and sd card from my PC properly (varies by OS)
7. I used Root Explorer to edit the vold.fstab file in /system/etc/
8. I then restarted the VTAB

Here are what the two lines look like that you need to edit:

dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard[COLOR=#ff0000]/external[/COLOR] auto /devices/platform/sdhci-pxa.0/mmc_host/mmc1
dev_mount internalstorage /mnt/sdcard 4 /devices/platform/sdhci-pxa.2/mmc_host/mmc0

They end up as:

dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/sdhci-pxa.0/mmc_host/mmc1
dev_mount internalstorage /mnt/sdcard[COLOR=#ff0000]/external[/COLOR] 4 /devices/platform/sdhci-pxa.2/mmc_host/mmc0

After a restart your external SD Card will now be mounted at /sdcard and the internal storage at /sdcard/external. This just swaps the locations that the two areas are mounted at.

Positive: You now have more space that is seen, by default, as the sd card.

Negatives:

1. Stuff may run slower - using the best external SD Card you can afford will help here, but it will never be as fast as the internal storage.
2. If you remove your external SD Card any apps that are located there and any data there will not be available.
3. You may have to reinstall some apps.
4. There may be other side effects that no one is aware of yet.

I used Root Explorer to edit the file on the device. There are other file explorers that allow you to mount system folders as R/W and work with them. Root Explorer has a simple tab that you tap to change between RO and R/W.

I have restarted the VTAB twice and the change has persisted.

DO NOT use the Unmount SD Card from the device settings under SD Card & Device Storage.

DO NOT format either the internal memory or the user installed SD Card using the device's settings menu.

You make this mod at your own risk. What worked for other users may not work for you.

SD Card & Storage page after mod (please view!)

I have attached my original and modified fstab files in the zip below.

THANK YOU Marvin! For all others giving instructions, this is what is meant by "detailed" instructions. I'm no newb, but I'm also not a code writer, so if I'm messing with code, I want step-by-step, and that is exactly what you gave here - BRAVO my man, excellent job. IMO, the Vtab is the best value on the market, this makes it really usable.

Thanks again!

Clay

 

[probbiethe1]

Jtpboy,

Please view the image I linked to in the opening post. (added 11/25/2011) It shows what the SD Card & Storage settings page looks like on my VTAB after the mod.

It sounds like your internal storage is not mounted at all. Compare your edited file with the one I attached to the opening post (added 11/25/2011) to see if it is correct.

Again - be careful making mods to your device and I am not responsible if anything in this thread does harm.

Zip of both the modded and original fstab files.

I used marvin02 files from this post ( pg3 #24 ) and it fixed my issue. I dont know what I did wrong when I edited the file but just coping and pasting this one worked perfect. Thank you marvin02!!

 

[xkchief]

You Guys are awesome like the young men of the 1950-1960 who worked on Automobiles to get the performance better.......I really don't think you guys care about the solution but love the challenge...onward and lots of luck to you modern day tinkers.

 

[corb]

You make this mod at your own risk. What worked for other users may not work for you.

Please note: mucking around in system files can cause your device to become unusable, a brick, toast (with no jelly), and mess it up bad. You accept all risk if you try this!!!!!!!

Here is what I did:

1. Moved all of my apps that were "moved to Sd" back to the device
2. Connected the VTAB to my PC with USB cable
3. Mounted both the internal storage and SD card as USB Storage
4. Copied everything from the internal storage to the Sd card
5. Create a folder on the external SD Card named "external"
6. Unmount both the internal storage and sd card from my PC properly (varies by OS)
7. I used Root Explorer to edit the vold.fstab file in /system/etc/
8. I then restarted the VTAB

Here are what the two lines look like that you need to edit:

Does this mod work on a non-rooted tablet? I let it update to Honeycomb (3.2.1) and then looked at rooting it. As you know, it can't be done after the update...only before.. I'd gladly roll it back to the previous version if I could, but from what I'm finding in the forums, that can't be done either.

Am I stuck with it the way it is?? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Conspirator]

Pretty Much YES. You are stuck this way. This whole thread was to fix the drive mount system, which has been fixed by the HC update.

The way that Vizio has been releasing updates for the tablet has been to fully seal up any of the known Rootable exploits before they are released to the public. Unless someone discovers a new undocumented exploit in Android 3.2.1, there will be no new root. This isnt just a Vizio problem, this is an android issue. You cant crack the yolk without cracking the whole egg open.

 

[corb]

Pretty Much YES. You are stuck this way. This whole thread was to fix the drive mount system, which has been fixed by the HC update.

The way that Vizio has been releasing updates for the tablet has been to fully seal up any of the known Rootable exploits before they are released to the public. Unless someone discovers a new undocumented exploit in Android 3.2.1, there will be no new root. This isnt just a Vizio problem, this is an android issue. You cant crack the yolk without cracking the whole egg open.

Okay, just to make sure I'm understanding you. Since I've upgraded to HC -- the drive mount issue is resolved? In other words, when I set the default storage to "sd-card" it really is saving to the sd card and not internal storage? I'm not entirely sure how to check.. I think I can live without rooting it, I just want to know that once I start adding a bunch of apps, it's not going to fill up..

Thanks for the info and quick reply!

 

[marvin02]

If you have updated you can't do this mod as it requires the device to be rooted. In addition, Conspirator is correct - you can have the Vab use the external SD as the primary storage.

 

[Conspirator]

You can still fill up the internal Storage even with a 32G SD card set to primary storage. A lot of programs still keep their core program on the Internal storage, others dont like to automatically move to SD. I have about 8Gs on the 32G SD card filled, but still am hounded by low storage errors every so often because some of your bigger programs will keep say 20megs on internal and 100 megs on the SD card. Also system handler apps like file explorers and things like media players dont work so well when on the SD card, (It is hard to both run the app plus play the media "IE song/movie" off the SD at the same time)

You just have to take some time every once in a while and do some data management to keep everything in order. Go into the settings and go through all your programs a see what is saved where and what can be transfered to SD.