One of my friend needs this mod to extends all of his user applications to his whooping 16Gb external sdcard using app2sd capabilities on his PICOpad GEA. He wants to move a couple of big games applications (for his kids … sure 🙂 ) from his tiny 512Mb internal storage to an extra large 16Gb space on his external sdcard, so he could freeing some extra space again on the internal storage for other applications. If you were mature linux user, this trick is very simple … at the first split two seconds, instantly goes to the top of the head : … it’s just as easy as editing the mount point node on FAT system table fstab. Yeah, you were correct 🙂 Pull the original fstab from the device, swap the mount point name and push it back, after reboot now the app2sd can move the apps unto external sdcard. Rather than single time use only for him, I share here just in case some of you might need this also, here we go the mod zip :

signed_jfswap-extsd-emmc-swapped

How to use :

The steps to flash this mod is pretty straight forward, just like flashing a custom rom :

  • Download the mod zip from link above and copy it to the root of your sdcard, you may check it first with your file manager to confirm it was there. There are two sdcard storage on picopad GEA, i prefer to put the mod zip to external sdcard.
  • Boot into clockworkmod CWM recovery mode by turning off your phone, hold down Volume + button then press power button, hold them both until you see axioo logo appear then release it. Wait a sec or two … then you’re now in cwm recovery mode, you can navigate it through the menu using volume + and – button, and to executing the highlight menu you can press power button.
  • Choose Install zip from sdcard menu and execute it
  • Choose external sdcard. Navigate to the custom rom location and execute it. There will be a confirmation once again, and of course choose Yes.
  • After the installation completed, go back to main menu and choose Reboot System Now

The results :

Before applying this mod, the file manager apps see sdcard = usb phone storage, and sdcard2 = external-sdcard :

After applying this swap mod, the file manager apps see sdcard = external-sdcard, and sdcard2 = usb phone storage :

and the main purpose of this mod with app2sd :

Before applying this mod, app2sd see the usb phone storage as sdcard destination :

USB Phone storage

After applying this swap mod, app2sd see the external sdcard as sdcard destination :

My external sdcard is 8Gb.

If you need to revert back to original scheme, here is the mod zip :

signed_jfswap-extsd-emmc-revert2ori

Use the same steps as above to revert back the file system table to default stock ROM.

Last, but not least :

However, … bear in mind, even this mod looks like a nice trick, this swapping trick is too simple and had disadvantages :

  • the speed transfer of the external sdcard is too slow compare to internal memory of the phone, you may find some lagging loading of the apps on it and begin worse if the apps read it rapidly.
  • you cannot pullout the external sdcard from the device, because somehow it’s part of the system now, if you forgot, you’ll be find some apps missing on the launcher.
  • related to 2nd disadvantage above, you also cannot leave empty the external sdcard, because system will search for it’s mount points during boot stage, not throwing errors though, but not recommended. you may check what i said with adb logcat.

I think this trick is only a workaround, not a real problem solver, the right things to do for me is by resizing the internal storage to reasonable size, says 2Gb (relatively big enough) and as consequences the internal usb phone storage will shrink to 512Mb, which is ok since we can store our multimedia data such photos, videos, and musics files unto external sdcard. You will get compromise transfer speed whilst space storage stay intact. For you who might interested on this mod, you may read this custom ROM for PICOpad GEA article. Somewhere near the bottom you can find the script to repartition the internal storage into 2Gb size.

Happy hacking !!