topic Re: SD Card issues in XPERIA archive

SD Card issues

MayeulC — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:07:42 GMT

Hi,

I have some issues with the way SD cards are handled with this device... I know that Google is pushing hard to make them disappear, but they are a really big advantage in favor of android phones. That, plus USB OTG.

So, here are my issues :

Only the vfat filesystem is supported. I would like to format my sdcard using diferent filesystems, like ext4, btrfs, or whatever... to make use of their more advanced functionalities, like permissions, etc... But the phone won't recognize cards not fomatted with vfat. These extra filesystems are already implemented in the kernel, I don't see why they couldn't be used for the SD card.
Next, I am unable to move apps to the SD card. This is quite a big issue, especially with biggest games.
Third, but this issue will be solved if I root my phone, is that I can barely do anything on the SD card with a file manager.

My first impressions with this phone so far are that the T3 is a good smartphone, not too expensive, but I wouldn't have minded a little bit extra RAM.

Oh, and another off-topic question : there isn't any hall effect sensor on this device ?

Re: SD Card issues

Thommo — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:25:14 GMT

As far as I'm aware Linux/Android runs ext4 and is backwards compatible with ext3 and ext2 so somethings may appear as ext2 etc but are probably ext4

Now if Google were to become compatible with sd cards formatted in the ext4 system then this will mean a complete re-write of the kernal to be able to handle spikes in the cpu, This means that if the code is wrong then this will result is a system crash

Again moving apps to SD - Google removed this feature as they are moving towards Android L and encryption so it is Google themselves you need to ask this question to

Re: SD Card issues

Thommo — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:27:12 GMT

Also the Google API's don't work when moved to an SD card - You may get lucky with 1 or 2 working but the rest will render the app useless

Re: SD Card issues

MayeulC — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:58:36 GMT

Hello,

The problem isn't that the SD card appears as ext2 or ext3, but that my Xperia can only mount the card if forrmatted to vfat. If it is not the case, then it asks me to format it.

I know there are multiple vendors out there that support the ext4 filesystem for SD cards on android. I don't know what you were trying to say with "this will mean a complete re-write of the kernal to be able to handle spikes in the cpu, This means that if the code is wrong then this will result is a system crash", sorry for that, but you must be aware that ext4 is way better supported than fat or NTFS by the kernel, and in no case a complete rewrite is needed. It is almost trivial (in my opinion) to support it.

I understand that google is removing this feature (which is really sad), but I have heard that sony sent an OTA update to re-enable the feature on some android 4.4 phones.

As for the google API, I didn't know this, and I tank you for pointing this out (even if I don't understand the reason behind that : Dalvik should work with apps on the SD card, but I don't know about the upcoming replacement VM in android L known as ART).

This isn't a huge issue for me, since a big part of the applications I want to put on the SD card aren't using the Google API.

Re: SD Card issues

Thommo — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 22:24:26 GMT

In order for a linux kernal to handle or be compatible with external albiet an SD card using the ext4 file system I can guarantee a rewrite of the kernal is needed as explained above - I could write a whole bunch of stuff explaining why but nobody wants to read that much so I will just say Google it