Likebook Alita

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by HumbleDumbbell

Hm, I really wanted an excuse to get a 512gb card.... I'm not an expert on this and don't quite understand what you mean, but form your earlier post, it seems your concern is with the card's longevity? Is it really going to be that bad if it is over 128gb?

If the space reserved for defective memory cells is full, the card is defective. With the current MLC technology, a cell can withstand ~ 300 write accesses.
And 512 GB need more spare cells than 128 GB.
Likebook partitioning is designed for 128 GB in this regard.
That's why I decided to use 128 GB cards.

[parkher]

Originally Posted by HumbleDumbbell

Hm, I really wanted an excuse to get a 512gb card.... I'm not an expert on this and don't quite understand what you mean, but form your earlier post, it seems your concern is with the card's longevity? Is it really going to be that bad if it is over 128gb?

I am using 512 GB cards in all my Alita, Mimas, Ares e-readers.
The problem with not enough space reserved for defective cells is only if you choose to use the card as an internal one.
You don't even have to format it inside Alita, if you use it as an external card.
If you use it as internal, then you will not get access to more than 128 GB anyway, if I understand it correctly.
But if you use it as an external card you will have about 480 GB of free space with a 512 GB card. But a single file cannot exceed 4 GB, as only fat32 seems to work if the card is used as external. I did not try exfat, but others reported that it does not work.
If you use your card as an internal 128 GB storage, again, if I understand it correctly - you will not see it directly, you only will be able to move your installed apps there.
So, if somebody uses an app which (perhaps with its data) takes a lot of space and works only when installed in the internal storage - the way to go is a 128 GB card used as internal.
If you have many pdf files and/or other files, such as various ebook formats (epub, fb2, azw3, mobi, rtf, doc, txt, html, chm, etc.), comic book formats (cbr, cbz, cbt, cba, cb7), various dictionary formats (dsl, dict, etc), each file not exceeding 4 GB - then the way to go is 512 GB as external.
There is also a security aspect. If used as internal, the card cannot be read by a thief if the card is stolen (just the card, without your device).
On the other hand, if your Alita stops working, the data on your internal card is also lost.
With an external card, its content is accessible independently of the device.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by parkher

But a single file cannot exceed 4 GB, as only fat32 seems to work if the card is used as external. I did not try exfat, but others reported that it does not work.

NTFS works.
However, since NTFS is very writing-intensive, the card should be repartitioned - with half of GB in MB as an unpartitioned area in front of the NTFS partition.
With a 512 GB card that would be 256 MB.

[parkher]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

NTFS works.
However, since NTFS is very writing-intensive, the card should be repartitioned - with half of GB in MB as an unpartitioned area in front of the NTFS partition.
With a 512 GB card that would be 256 MB.

Interesting. Good to know. Thanks.
I wonder about the best cluster sizes, both for ntfs and for fat32. Considering that there are tens of thousands of small ebook files. With 512 GB card, perhaps even hundreds of thousands. Still, I remember calculating the average losses like half a cluster per file or perhaps even more, and they still seemed pretty low like 16 GB or something (I might be wrong) with the default size (which I also forgot now, need to check and calculate again) - so it looked to me that with 512 GB card it was pretty negligible and I stopped paying attention to it.

[HumbleDumbbell]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does using it as an external card mean? Is it just some kind of a setting? I have a card in my Android phone and was never asked to choose between the internal/external use type. By external you don't mean OTG-USB, do you?

[parkher]

Originally Posted by HumbleDumbbell

Pardon my ignorance, but what does using it as an external card mean? Is it just some kind of a setting? I have a card in my Android phone and was never asked to choose between the internal/external use type. By external you don't mean OTG-USB, do you?

When you insert a card, a new card is detected, and you are given a choice to use it as internal or as external (perhaps the wording is a bit different, perhaps "portable" instead of "external").
If you choose to use it as internal, it is formatted as ext4 or something.
If you choose to use it as external - you can skip the formatting if it is already formatted.
If you choose portable/external, then you see (and can access) the card both in your Alita and in your pc when connected to pc. If you choose internal, you don't see it all.
I mean, I don't see it, perhaps somebody can With some special tool?
I don't see an increased internal storage either. But it is possible to move apps to it, it seems. I did not try doing that. That is the only usage for it - again, I might be wrong.

And no, it does not mean usb-otg. Put the card on its tray. I do not suggest inserting a card into an external card reader and connecting it via usb. But you could do so, I guess...

BTW, on windows PC I am always using FAR file manager. So, in order to see your Alita's internal storage and the external card storage in FAR, you need to install FAR plugin PortaDev.
With explorer, you don't need anything additionally.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by HumbleDumbbell

Pardon my ignorance, but what does using it as an external card mean? Is it just some kind of a setting? I have a card in my Android phone and was never asked to choose between the internal/external use type. By external you don't mean OTG-USB, do you?

I am now talking about cards in the tray.
There are two options:
- internally formatted; the internal memory is only used for special applications and for apps that are moved there after installation. The card is used as the main medium. The partition division is 16 MB FAT and the rest is Other. It must not be removed.
- Portable card: it remains formatted as it was originally, but - as far as I can remember - you cannot use Kiwix-Wikipedia (38GB) on it. I also believe that processing is much slower.
And then there is USB-OTG - a 4 TB NTFS hard disk also worked there.

[parkher]

As to the speed, the reading / writing speed of the card remains the same. Internal or portable. Sure, ext4 perhaps is more efficient and faster than fat32. But encryption is used for internal, so that slows things down a bit.
In e-reader, the main purpose is reading. Writing speed is not critical. Indexing of dictionaries (or libraries) is not critical either.
You only need to have fast enough reading. And those cards are fast enough for HD video playback. Certainly fast enough for a page of text. Besides, caching is used in smarter reading software. You can install any reader app you like, you are not limited to the default one. Although the default one is pretty good, especially for pdfs.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by parkher

As to the speed, the reading / writing speed of the card remains the same. Internal or portable. Sure, ext4 perhaps is more efficient and faster than fat32. But encryption is used for internal, so that slows things down a bit.
In e-reader, the main purpose is reading. Writing speed is not critical. Indexing of dictionaries (or libraries) is not critical either.
You only need to have fast enough reading. And those cards are fast enough for HD video playback. Certainly fast enough for a page of text. Besides, caching is used in smarter reading software. You can install any reader app you like, you are not limited to the default one. Although the default one is pretty good, especially for pdfs.

The two most important programs to me (Calibre Companion and Kiwix) use their data in the internal memory - and neither of them fit into the 23 GB.
But in the internally formatted 128 GB SD card.
And that is the case with all programs that use very large databases.

[viceant]

Originally Posted by HumbleDumbbell

Thanks. How about the default 6.0 firmware? I wasn't able to upgrade mine (my tablet never connected to the update app on my pc, probably due to the config file giving me an error (unicode issue?) on the app startup), so I will be using 6.0.

I thought it wouldn't be difficult to upgrade if you do what is expected.

Enviado desde mi Mi Max mediante Tapatalk

[pazos]

When formated as internal partition:

/data is used to install programs
/sdcard (/storage/emulated/0) points to the sdcard.
/data/media won't be used.

When formatted as external:
/data is used to install programs
/sdcard (/storage/emulated/0) points to /data/media
/storage/emulated/UUID points to the sdcard

Since /data is a partition and /data/media is just a dir within the data partition one of the advantages of internal formatting is to split the storage between apps and app data.

The implementation bits differ from OEM to OEM. I'm talking here about modern Likebooks. Other android vendors can have different partitions for /data and internal storage. In that case formatting the sdcard as the internal partition means you cannot repurpose internal storage for anything else (unless you're rooted, but even then only root apps can access that partition).

About sdcards as external storage. There's two standards: SDHC(fat32, up to 64GB) and SDXC (exfat, up to 2TB). But again, the implementation of this is a mess because it doesn't talk about the support of the sdcard itself, but the support of the host device that access to the sdcard.

But, to make things simpler: if you buy an sdcard announced as SDXC it should be formatted in exfat. If you use it on a android device that has no support for exfat then the OS will ask you to format it.

As the whole specs are used mainly in embedded devices (consumer cameras, for instance) some things don't really hold in android, so you can buy an SDXC card and format if as fat32, and should work as long as you don't hit the limits of the filesystem.

But yeah, it is a mess. Some vendors announce support for sdcards up to 1TB, which are not technically SDXC, and way over SDHC. And, even worst, if your device doesn't support exfat the only standard it mets is SDHC and anything beyond 64GB are just vendor promises.

In my experience all cards formatted as fat32 should be able to handle 128/256/512GB, but if they don't work the vendors are really covered as they don't announce SDXC support by skipping exfat support.

I do hope something of this makes sense to you

[HumbleDumbbell]

Originally Posted by parkher

When you insert a card, a new card is detected, and you are given a choice to use it as internal or as external (perhaps the wording is a bit different, perhaps "portable" instead of "external").[removed].

Thank you for the explanation. Indeed, I can't see it in windows explorer when it's formatted as internal. I want to put books in the default library (books folder), but what's the point if the folder is on the main internal drive that still shows the same size. Am I doing something wrong?

Can I use it as a portable/external drive and just move my library to that drive?

[parkher]

Maybe I will make another go at "as internal" on a spare Alita.
But I will not see /sdcard from my windows pc when connected via usb cable.
At least not by Media Transfer Protocol through Windows Portable Devices API.
I think I tried already - unsuccessfully.

[parkher]

Originally Posted by HumbleDumbbell

Thank you for the explanation. Indeed, I can't see it in windows explorer when it's formatted as internal. I want to put books in the default library (books folder), but what's the point if the folder is on the main internal drive that still shows the same size. Am I doing something wrong?

Can I use it as a portable/external drive and just move my library to that drive?

That is exactly what I am doing - using as portable/external and just copy my library from PC to the (512 GB) card. Either through Alita, if the card is already inserted, or just separately directly to the card.
I don't see the card from PC either (via MTP) when the card is formatted as internal.
And the free space of the internal storage remains the same, it is not increased.
Not by 512 GB, not even by 128 GB, not by 1 GB.
ADB probably can be used to access the internal card (/sdcard), though.
If you don't want to be pushing and pulling like a horse, perhaps FAR FARDroid plugin might be helpful (I use FAR all the time). Similar or better ADB plugin is probably available for Total Commander as well.
Still, for my needs the "as external" option seems to be better:
• 4x more storage.
• accessible from PC via MTP. Also accessible from Alita.
• the card can be moved to another LikeBook device (I have several).
• a library (or a dictionary set) can be changed simply by swapping cards, if you have a multi-card library.

[HumbleDumbbell]

Originally Posted by parkher

That exactly what I am doing - using as portable/external and just copy my library from PC to the (512 GB) card. Either through Alita, if the card is already inserted, or just separately directly to the card.
I don't see the card from PC either (via MTP) when the card is formatted as internal.
And the free space of the internal storage remains the same, it is not increased.
Not by 512 GB, not even by 128 GB, not by 1 GB.
ADB probably can be used to access the internal card (/sdcard), though.
If you don't want to be pushing and pulling like a horse, perhaps FAR FARDroid plugin might be helpful (I use FAR all the time). Similar or better ADB plugin is probably available for Total Commander as well.
Still, for my needs the "as external" option seems to be better:
• 4x more storage.
• accessible from PC via MTP. Also accessible from Alita.
• the card can be moved to another LikeBook device (I have several).
• a library (or a dictionary set) can be changed simply by swapping cards, if you have a multi-card library.

Are those books going to appear in the default reader (library on the main screen)? That's what I want. I don't want to use any other software than the default one as much as possible. So far, it seems the default reader only looks for books in the books folder. Or am I mistaken? I've never put anything outside of it, I must admit. My wife has usurped the tablet ever since it came, reading manga and stuff, so I have very limited access to it now to check.