How to increase cache partition ( or any partition ) on Ubuntu Touch phone? Question.

[Marathon2422]

@stefano did you flash ubuntu touch first and then flash 15.04…or 16.04. as flashing U T first sorts out the partition

[Stefano]

@marathon2422 I have tried to flash 16.04 version 14 and it fails at recovery. The version 1 I installed without any problem, but this version 14 and also later ones doesn't. Same message in recovery, contact support.
15.04 install without any issue.

[Stefano]

@marathon2422 what did you mean the flashing UT sorts out partition?

[mihael]

The way I did it (taking space from the 'custom' partition and adding it to the 'cache' partition):

• it is not possible to do it from inside ubuntu so you need to install twrp and reboot that
• now the fdisk inside twrp is too weak and cannot help us so mount the ubuntu system now which contains the fdisk we need:

mount /dev/block/sda41 /system
mount -t proc proc /system/proc
mount -t sysfs sys /system/sys
mount -o bind /dev /system/dev
chroot /system /bin/bash

• now we have an fdisk that can do this:
• fdisk: delete the 'custom' partition (partition 42 for my meizu pro 5)
• fdisk: create the 'custom' partition with a smaller size (I calculated: 512 - (700 - 512) = 512 - 188 = 324MB so that 188 would be available to add to the current size of the 'cache' partition)
• parted: give name 'custom' to the newly created partition name 42 custom
• format that partition: mke2fs -t ext4 -m 0 /dev/block/sda42 - now, from what I understand from my notes, that didn't work so I had to reboot in twrp and then it worked
• check if you want with df -h that you have a smaller 'custom' partition
• check if you want that you can boot your phone and everything is ok
• now repeat the above instructions for booting the twrp recovery and then mounting the ubuntu system
• now repeat the above instructions do delete and recreate the 'cache' partition with a bigger size and then format it:
• fdisk: delete 43 (that is the number of my cache partition on my meizu pro 5)
• fdisk: recreate 43 - with the max size - I decreased the 'custom' partition so that the new 'cache' would be 700MB
• parted: name 43 cache
• reboot in twrp and format it: mke2fs -t ext4 -m 0 /dev/block/sda43
• df -h or sudo parted -l - there you go!

[Stefano]

@mihael I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[Stefano]

@mihael I think I managed to do that. How would I verify how big my cache is now?

[mihael]

Oh, with df -h

[Stefano]

@mihael with adb shell or ?

[Stefano]

@mihael /dev/disk/by-partlabel/cache 496M 4.2M 482M 1% /android/cache what that means ??? Cos I changed it to 700 and saved it that way.

[mihael]

From terminal even...

I don't know... Mine shows

/dev/disk/by-partlabel/cache     679M  768K  664M   1% /android/cache

[Stefano]

@mihael for some reason it did not change/save even after I saved id with w and rebooted and formated the cache ???
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/block/sda1 1024 1279 256 1M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda2 1280 1343 64 256K Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda3 1344 1407 64 256K Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda21 2048 3071 1024 4M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda22 3072 5119 2048 8M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda23 5120 5631 512 2M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda24 5632 6655 1024 4M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda25 6656 7679 1024 4M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda26 7680 13823 6144 24M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda27 13824 22015 8192 32M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda28 22016 30207 8192 32M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda29 30208 35327 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda30 35328 40447 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda31 40448 45567 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda32 45568 50687 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda33 50688 55807 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda41 65536 720895 655360 2.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda42 720896 851967 131072 512M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda43 851968 983039 131072 512M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda44 983040 7633914 6650875 25.4G Microsoft basic data

But when I saved it the table was this:

dev/block/sda21 2048 3071 1024 4M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda22 3072 5119 2048 8M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda23 5120 5631 512 2M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda24 5632 6655 1024 4M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda25 6656 7679 1024 4M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda26 7680 13823 6144 24M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda27 13824 22015 8192 32M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda28 22016 30207 8192 32M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda29 30208 35327 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda30 35328 40447 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda31 40448 45567 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda32 45568 50687 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda33 50688 55807 5120 20M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda41 65536 720895 655360 2.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda42 720896 797700 76805 300M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda43 797952 983039 185088 723M Microsoft basic data
/dev/block/sda44 983040 7633914 6650875 25.4G Microsoft basic data

SO WHAT NOW, WHY IT DID NOT SAVE???

[mihael]

I'm sorry, I really don't know... Maybe it's some linux issue that someone with more experience could shed light upon...

[mihael]

What does df -h from twrp console show?

[Stefano]

@mihael Did you do it on the phone TWRP terminal or via adb? I mean the whole repartitioning. Cos I have used adb shell for it.

[Stefano]

@mihael /dev/disk/by-partlabel/cache 496M 4.2M 482M 1% /android/cache

[mihael]

@Stefano I believe I did it through ssh...

[Stefano]

@mihael I give it a try again later, maybe I'll figure it out. (will try with TWRP terminal as well)

[mihael]

Let me know...

[Stefano]

@mihael I managed to do it. The problem was that I did not format the newly created partitions properly and did not change the names of them as I did not seen such an option in fdisk , but, there is an expert menu under ,x, and there is option to rename. After I renamed it, I format it and now it shows partition 43 = 723m, so I think that should suffice. Will try now to flash 16.04 now, we'll see what happens now! Thank you a lot for your help.

Edit. It flashed 16.04 without failing in recovery

[mihael]

@Stefano Wonderful!!! Thank you too for all your posts!