Strange partition layout on X96

[hjl]

I'm running armbian on a X96 and was able to install it to the eMMC. So far no problems.

The machine has 8 GB of eMMC, and that's why I want to use every free space if possible. But the partition table looks quite strange.

Here is the output of cfdisk:

Quote

                                  Disk: /dev/mmcblk0
                   Size: 7,3 GiB, 7818182656 bytes, 15269888 sectors
                           Label: dos, identifier: 0x00000000

    Device               Boot        Start        End    Sectors    Size   Id Type
>>  /dev/mmcblk0p1                       0       8191       8192      4M   83 Linux     
    Free space                        8192      73727      65536     32M
    /dev/mmcblk0p2                   73728     204799     131072     64M   83 Linux
    Free space                      204800     221183      16384      8M
    /dev/mmcblk0p3                  221184    1269759    1048576    512M   83 Linux
    /dev/mmcblk0p4                 1269760   11567103   10297344    4,9G    5 Extended
    ├─Free space                   1271808    1286144      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p5               1286144    1302527      16384      8M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1304576    1318912      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p6               1318912    1384447      65536     32M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1386496    1400832      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p7               1400832    1466367      65536     32M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1468416    1482752      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p8               1482752    1499135      16384      8M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1501184    1515520      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p9               1515520    1531903      16384      8M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1533952    1548288      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p10              1548288    1613823      65536     32M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1615872    1630208      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p11              1630208    1695743      65536     32M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   1697792    1712128      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p12              1712128    2760703    1048576    512M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   2762752    2777088      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p13              2777088    2842623      65536     32M   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   2844672    2859008      14337      7M
    ├─/dev/mmcblk0p14              2859008    4956159    2097152      1G   83 Linux
    ├─Free space                   4958208    4972544      14337      7M
    └─/dev/mmcblk0p15              4972544   15269887   10297344    4,9G   83 Linux
    Free space                    11567104   15269887    3702784    1,8G

The extended partition p4 ends at block 11567103, but p15, which is part of p4, ends at15269887.

I was not able to fix this with parted's resizepart command. The resulting new partition table was not written to the eMMC. Any ideas how to fix this?

p15 contains armbian, which runs fine in this configuration. Nevertheless I would like to delete unused partitions and enlarge p15. p14 could be a candidate for this, and some other probably, too. But I don't know, which of these are needed for further operation (boot loader etc.)?

Maybe some kind soul has some hints for me.

Btw: in case I delete these "unneeded" partitions, will I be able to restore the android system later from a stock ROM?

Kind regards!
 

[balbes150]

To modify partitions, you must modify the dtb file. And change the installation script so that it takes into account the partition name change.