Giuseppe Parrello

 

Oppo Find 7


Custom Storage Partitions

This article was originally published on XDA by me on November 6th, 2014 under the title "[TEST] Custom Storage Partitions v1 for OPPO FIND 7 (x9076)".

Read-Me First


Goal/Purpose

This procedure will resize the two partitions ("userdata" and "sdcard") used by Oppo Find 7 to store personal data, such as apps, photos, images, and so on.
Due to the fact the Oppo Find 7 (x9076) uses an only-3GB "userdata" partition to store apps, while all the remaining space (24 GB) is used for "sdcard" partition to store other data, this matter doesn't provide with enough space to store apps and their related data.
This procedure should be used to enlarge the size of "userdata" partition, to let user have more space for apps and less space for personal data in order to use some ROMs that currently do not provide with support for unified storage ("Unified Storage Layout" or LVM), such as Color OS, CyanogenMod and other ROMs based on CyanogenMod rom.
With the provided compressed file, you will receive some ".sh" files to be used to resize the storage partitions. The filename of these scripts just means two numbers, the first one is the new size (in GB) of "userdata" partition, while the second one is the new size (in GB) of "sdcard" partition. So, for example, the script "8_19.sh" should be used to have 8 GB for the resized "userdata" partition, and "19 GB" for the resized "sdcard" partition.


How to

  1. Make a backup of all your data on your phone.
  2. Download and unzip the compressed file.
  3. Just unzip the included "external_sd.zip" file on root of your external MicroSD card.
  4. Restart into recovery.
  5. Run terminal window and execute "adb shell" to go into adb shell.
  6. Run command "cd /external_sd/new_scripts".
  7. Be sure that all .sh files are in folder "/external_sd/new_scripts".
  8. Run one of the provided ".sh" file. Do not unplug the usb cable and wait until the end of the procedure. If you've selected "unified.sh" script, please remember that you have to update the custom recovery (as described in thread "Unified Storage Layout").
  9. Enjoy your new storage partitions.

Issues

  1. If the procedure will end with the error "Persist partition is damaged. After rebooting into recovery, please run persist_fix application.", you have to reboot into recovery again, and then run the script included inside "persist_fix" folder (it is part of the zipped file "external_sd.zip").
    Make sure that "persist" partition will have the "ext4" formatting, because it is happened, many times, that during backup and restore of "persist" partition, something happens to damaged the "ext4" formatting.
  2. It is happened, once only, that you cannot reboot into recovery again due to some problems during backup-restore procedure of "recovery" partition. This problem may be simply solved flashing the recovery with "fastboot" command.

Tips & Hints

  1. I suggest users of Oppo Find 7a, to use alternate unified procedures (such as “Unified Storage Layout” or LVM) instead of this procedure, due to low storage sizes. It is a non-sense to waste space for two partitions (one dedicated only to the apps, and the other one to user’s data) when you can use only a big one, shared for both apps and data.
  2. If you have not enough know-how to use this procedure or if you are afraid of doing something wrong using this procedure, you can wait for a definitive decision from Oppo about storage layout. With last final release of ColorOS (2.0 kitkat), Oppo still continues to use two partitions, with only 3GB dedicated to apps, and the remaining storage space dedicated to user’s data.
    There are some rumors about Oppo regarding storage layout, that is Oppo will use the LVM storage layout in the future. Anyway we hope that Oppo may release the guidelines for storage as soon as possible, maybe with next ColorOS release.
  3. This procedure makes a backup of the most important partitions in order to restore them after the resizing procedure. The backup is stored on the external MicroSD card at the end of the procedure, so please keep the backup for future reference and to restore it if something goes wrong in the future.
    Please take note that only ColorOS is bundled with updated images of few partitions (some of them managed by the backup/restore procedure), but not for all partitions, so the only way to restore an image of a partition currently is to restore it from a stored image (such as the images stored by this procedure).
  4. During testing period, I’ve discovered that “persist” partition, managed by this procedure, may lose the “ext4” file system formatting during the backup/restore procedure. On Internet there is a lot of mainstream about this partition, but mainly there is a lot of confusion regarding it. Someone even suggests formatting (so erasing it) this partition whenever users encounter problems on using phone.
    As far as I understand, “persist” partition is a mountable partition, it contains important code (binaries and data), mainly regarding Wi-Fi connections. It is used by all ROMs, including stock and custom ones.
    So it is mandatory to preserve the contents of this partition to avoid bootloops, missing or poor Wi-Fi connections and other serious problems on using this phone.
    If you want to know what is the contents of this partition, you can simply boot your ROM, use a terminal prompt, input “su” (you need root permissions) and simply go into “/persist” folder (it is mounted by the ROM).
    At the end of the resize procedure, the “ext4” formatting will be checked in order to prevent any problems on “persist” partition. If “ext4” file system formatting is lost, a message will be shown to the user.
    The user must reboot into recovery, and then use the script included inside “persist_fix” folder (included in “external_sd.zip” file). This script will restore an image of “persist” partition and then check if the problem is solved or not. Please use this script whenever you have problems on “persist” partition (on Internet there is a lot of mainstream about “persist” partition, not only related to Oppo Find 7).

Copyrights

Some scripts included in this procedure are based on scripts written by Coldbird and included into "Unified Storage Layout" procedure. All rights are reserved to Coldbird.


Thanks


References


Tested ROMs

  1. Color OS – releases 1.2.6 and 2.0.0 Kitkat.
  2. AICP – Release 20141018.
    Issue: it is not possible to use the "sdcard0" mounting partition, it is set to read-only permission. To solve this issue, you have to flash another ROM before this, reboot and let it write its own folders onto "sdcard0" partition. Finally you can flash AICP rom and use it normally.
  3. AOKP – Nightly 2014-10-18.
  4. CyanogenMod CM11 – Nightly 20141025.
  5. Dirty Unicorns – 20141011 v8.0 weekly.
    Issue: bootloop – When a window, for selecting the language, appears, it seems to be blocked and after 5 seconds it reboots.
  6. Mokee – 141025 release
  7. Nameless ROM – 20141027 nightly
  8. Omnirom 20140923 nightly and 20141031 nightly
    Issue: bootloop – When a window, for selecting the language, appears, it seems to be blocked and after 5 seconds it reboots.
  9. Paranoid Android – 4.6 beta 5 20141021
    Issue : no boot – This ROM doesn't boot at all.
    Tested also with 4.6 beta 4 20141007 – no problem.

Tested machine


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