Navigation

    UBports Robot Logo

    UBports Forum

    • Register
    • Login
    • Search
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Search

    Format SD card?

    Volla Phone
    3
    6
    494
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • M
      Martin last edited by

      The Ubuntu-VollaPhone offers (from the beginning) an app "Externe Speichermedien" ("External storage media"),
      which shows an entry for an inserted SD card, but the button "Formatieren" ("Format") is greyed out.
      Is it really true that Ubuntu Touch expects a FAT32 (vfat) formatted card?
      SD Extended Capacity cards (>32GB) usually are preformatted with exFAT and for a Linux system probably
      a filesystem like e.g. ext4 is much better suited. Most user won't remove and insert the card very often.
      Since I don't use any Windows or Mac systems, I removed the card, repartioned and reformated it with
      ext4 and changed the fstab to mount it, but...

      What is default mount point for the SD card?
      Why is the "external storage media" app not working?
      I expect the app to reformat the card with a file system of my choice (e.g. ext4)...
      Any clues?

      Thanks,
      Martin

      Keneda 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Keneda
        Keneda @Martin last edited by

        @martin
        External storage media is on all phone, i have it on my MX4 but don't have any SD slot.
        It is used for SD card, but also for USB external devices.

        There is a bug on Volla Phone, i don't know if it's related to yours : https://github.com/HelloVolla/ubuntu-touch-beta-tests/issues/97

        I also don't know if it's resolved with OTA-17.

        2015-Now : Meizu MX4 (Stable) for daily use
        Spare : Nexus 5 (Stable)

        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          Martin @Keneda last edited by

          @keneda
          Thank you for the fast response and the hint. I was not aware of this "issue".
          Hopefully this is fixed and also there will be improvements for the file system support
          in the (near) future.

          In the meantime I reformatted the SDXC with a primary FAT32 (32GB) and ext4 partition (rest)
          and at least the FAT32 was recognized.
          But I also did an upgrade to OTA-17 and now the
          Music and Camera app don't seem to work any more. (only hourglass-like animation shown)
          (A Logviewer app showed me for "v2.9.22 music":
          Loading module: 'libubuntu_application_api_touch_mirclient.so.3.0.0'
          library "libpq_cust.so" not found' )
          Not sure if the upgrade was the reason (the problem still exists without the sdcard inserted),
          but this problem will get now a higher priority...

          Josele13 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Josele13
            Josele13 @Martin last edited by Josele13

            @martin Ut only works on Fat32, Android can use Fat32 and Xfat. If you want to use a multipurpose micro SD, on the Pc make a partition for Ut with Fat 32 files, then create another partition without files (it doesn't contain anything) of about 100Mb, then you can create another partition in ext4 to use with Linux,
            The partition (WITHOUT FILES) is so that the UT or Android operating system doesn't see the ext4 partition, in Android it won't let you use the card, in Ut it usually tells you to format the card, you should never do that.

            I hope this helps you a little,
            regards...

            Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 pro
            Xiaomi Redm Note 7
            Pinephone Brave Heart
            Nexus 5
            Bq U Plus
            Bq E4.5 Ubuntu edition .... is dead

            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              Martin @Josele13 last edited by

              @josele13
              With my 2 primary partitions - a vfat/FAT32 and an ext4 one -
              UT tells me that it found a partion to include (the FAT32, which is mounted afterwards)
              and another one, which could not be added (the ext4, which probably has to be mounted manually...).
              So UT did not "ask" about formatting a SD card (yet).
              Why is it necessary that UT does not "see" the ext4 partition?
              And why should a UT user care about Android? (I don't!)
              But I'm still disappointed that UT is limited to an "outdated" file system and I don't
              really understand why this is the case - notably for a Linux system like UT.
              Portability should not play a big role, since most users don't remove the SD card often.
              Hopefully the UT file systems support will get better one day...

              Josele13 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Josele13
                Josele13 @Martin last edited by

                It's better that Ut doesn't see it so it doesn't ask you to format the sd, if you do that you lose everything, it's not just for android, you also want to use the sd in a video or photo camera,
                You never know where you can use it.

                Regards...

                Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 pro
                Xiaomi Redm Note 7
                Pinephone Brave Heart
                Nexus 5
                Bq U Plus
                Bq E4.5 Ubuntu edition .... is dead

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • First post
                  Last post