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Android 8.0's 'Streaming OS Updates' Will Work Even If Your Phone Is Full (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the insufficient-space dept.

Regardless of whether or not your phone is full of pictures, or videos, or apps, you will still be able to download and install an OS update with Android 8.0. According to the latest source.android.com documentation, Google has cooked up a scheme to make sure that an "insufficient space" error will never stop an update again. Ars Technica reports: Where the heck can Google store the update if your phone is full, though? If you remember in Android 7.0, Google introduced a new feature called "Seamless Updates." This setup introduced a dual system partition scheme -- a "System A" and "System B" partition. The idea is that, when it comes time to install an update, you can normally use your phone on the online "System A" partition while an update is being applied to the offline "System B" partition in the background. Rather than the many minutes of downtime that would normally occur from an update, all that was needed to apply the update was a quick reboot. At that point, the device would just switch from partition A to the newly updated partition B. When you get that "out of space" error message during an update, you're only "out of space" on the user storage partition, which is just being used as a temporary download spot before the update is applied to the system partition. Starting with Android 8.0, the A/B system partition setup is being upgraded with a "streaming updates" feature. Update data will arrive from the Internet directly to the offline system partition, written block by block, in a ready-to-boot state. Instead of needing ~1GB of free space, Google will be bypassing user storage almost entirely, needing only ~100KB worth of free space for some metadata. Ars Technica goes on to note that the feature will be backported to Google Play Services, and will be enabled on "Android 7.0 and later" devices with a dual system partition setup.

40 comments

  1. Awesome! by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Users get the latest apps, streamlined to remove any useful features, and also make it even easier for Google to plumb your juicy data and strengthen their behavior modification algorithms!

    A win for everyone!

    1. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sleep tight mates. We'll suffer through our crappy experience on Android but at least it's not Apple.

      The tears on your pillow say otherwise though.

    2. Re:Awesome! by Kjella · · Score: 0

      Users get the latest apps, streamlined to remove any useful features, and also make it even easier for Google to plumb your juicy data and strengthen their behavior modification algorithms!

      Huh? Instead of downloading a 1GB temp file that'll be freed after installing the update, it'll be written directly to the destination. It has nothing to do with features or versions or whatever... but hey, you could always sell your soul to Apple, not sure who else is left.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Awesome! by Teckla · · Score: 1

      but hey, you could always sell your soul to Apple, not sure who else is left.

      In the long run, is there really any difference between two super-powerful mega-corps?

    4. Re:Awesome! by Zaelath · · Score: 1

      Are they like liberal tears? Are the Russians really big on crying or something?

    5. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really... So instead of having to restart your phone every now and then and wait for it to install updates, yoou now have an extra partition sitting there empty waiting taking up useable space. We all know how often most OEMs release updates and patches too so its a great reason to sacrifice usable space.

      Oh well did any phones other than Pixels use the A/B partition scheme? I dont think thats a big deal any ways the Pixel phones never caught on, carriers didnt pick tnem up and developers didnt really flock to them they went elsewhere, one look at XDA shows the when Google stopped making Nexus devices, people went elsewhere. (For various reaaons, but that is off topic)

    6. Re:Awesome! by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Well one is pro-choice and the other is pro-life, and they both bicker over gun rights without really doing anything, but beyond that they're essentially the same. The special interests they cater to differ, but they're still in the catering business.

    7. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is one of the stupidest reasons for, or against, anything.

    8. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually its not. 'Anything but apple' is a sound decision when purchasing tech items.

    9. Re:Awesome! by Excelcia · · Score: 2

      Depends on how to look at it. It could also be looked at as "we will update your OS whether you want us to or not, and you can't even fill your phone with other stuff to prevent it". Sort of like Windows 10 and its forced updates.

      All your OS are belong to us!

    10. Re:Awesome! by Calydor · · Score: 1

      I'm more concerned about downloading a 1 GB OS Update on a data plan that only has 500 MB per month.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    11. Re:Awesome! by thsths · · Score: 1

      To me it seems like a good idea. Memory really should not be the issue for a mid range smartphone anymore. And having two partitions means you can go back after a failed update. That alone should be worth sacrificing the storage.

      Of course Windows achieves pretty much the same effect without permanently wasting the extra storage.

    12. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you can run out of date systems that get viruses and other malware every other day. It's your choice!

    13. Re: Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're using a phone with Android 8 (only the latest flagships in the near future) you should think about getting a better plan cuz even normal usage will eat it in about 3 days... or you could google "wifi"

    14. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My phone runs Gingerbread. Are there any active exploits that don't require me to install a random APK from the Internet?

    15. Re:Awesome! by kwalker · · Score: 1

      While I sympathize with having a small data plan, nothing I have read about this indicates that a 1GB would be required.

      First, it's generally the partition that is 1GB, the update would naturally be smaller than that.

      But second and more importantly, the update does not need to be sent uncompressed. They can easily use on-the-fly compression to make the update smaller in-transit just that they validate it and decompress it while writing it to disk, not after. Kinda like how HTTP encoding gzip works.

      --
      Improvise, adapt, and overcome.
  2. Streaming update not from Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If Google would update or even cross date our phones with Google Android, I would pay for it. Instead we get Google Android plus phone maker driver layer, plus phone maker crapware, plus carrier crapware.
    If I could just go back to 2015 Cyanogen...

    1. Re: Streaming update not from Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So get a Google phone.

    2. Re:Streaming update not from Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You get what you pay for. Pick Google Pixel or Apple iPhone. The rest are second tier.

    3. Re:Streaming update not from Google by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I just wish Google would provide an upgrade that would enable one to upgrade Android 5 and above to the latest. I could use something like it on my tablet.

  3. Reclaimable? by PReDiToR · · Score: 1

    Will we be able to kill this whole partition and reclaim the space?

    I like to use community ROMs and wouldn't want to do an OTA.

    --

    Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
    1. Re:Reclaimable? by Solandri · · Score: 2

      Writes to flash memory perform much better when you have some empty space (about 10%-20%). Unlike a HDD, you cannot overwrite a 0 with a 1, or a 1 with a 0 in flash memory. It has to go 0 -> erased -> 1, or 1 -> erased -> 0. (If you're into electronics, it acts much like an EEPROM.) The erased -> 0/1 step is blazing fast. But the 0/1 -> erased step is really slow; about as slow as or slower than a HDD. Consequently, flash memory controllers try to erase unused cells ahead of time in the background (this was what TRIM was about in the early SSD days), so that they're ready and available for blazing-fast writes. Empty space on the drive represents a buffer of pre-erased space, protecting you from having to erase cells on the fly to write new data. The less of empty space you have, the more likely the controller will be forced to erase cells on the fly, slowing down write speed to a snail's pace.

      So assuming this partition only takes 1-2 GB, having it sitting around unused and empty is a good thing. If you permanently fill that extra space with data, you'll be compromising the performance of your device. You're better off leaving it blank (either as free space, or as an unused partition). Temporarily filling it (to write a new OS) won't have much impact as long as a similar amount of space (the old OS) is deleted and erased immediately after.

    2. Re: Reclaimable? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      But it's not going to be empty, it's going to contain an older version of your OS which the system keeps around so it can update itself and boot from it in case the update fails.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    3. Re:Reclaimable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The physical cells the comprise the NAND flash are not organised or segmented by the logical partition at all. The flash controller will utilize a wear leveling algorithm so the bits in this "Partition" will always be at a new location in the flash whenever writes are taking place. Further most modern flash is overprovisioned 10% or more to account for wear and the need to pre-erase cells before writing.

  4. better description by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Google is reserving additional space and making it unusable by the user to ensure updates can be run.

    1. Re: better description by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was already reserved, it just now downloads directly to the update partition instead of temporarily to the user partition.

  5. Wow, that's really useful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    For the 9 months that the device still receives security updates this will be a killer feature! After that just throw it in the trash and buy some more Chinese junk!

  6. Google blocks you from using your SD card by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google blocks you from using your SD card as you wish but they will make sure that enough free space is reserved for their updates that you probably don't want.... thanks Google!

    1. Re:Google blocks you from using your SD card by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have to make sure they keep control over your phone somehow, after all. At least, until they bribe enough of Congress to make it illegal to run whatever software you want on it.

    2. Re:Google blocks you from using your SD card by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I thought that under Marshmallow, one can re-designate the SD card as internal storage and the on board flash storage as external. No?

  7. Nice feature... by sad_ · · Score: 1

    ... for something that never happens; OS updates on an Android phone.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  8. Community ROM by DrYak · · Score: 1

    But it's not going to be empty, it's going to contain an older version of your OS which the system keeps around so it can update itself and boot from it in case the update fails.

    That's in *google*'s update scheme (the one mentionned in the summary).

    This thread's top poster is not interested in OTA update from Google.
    He's interested in installed community firmware such as LineageOS (formely CyanogenMod).

    He has no use of the "one partition currently running (with old OS) one partition currently downloading (the next OS)", 1 partition is enough, and wondered if spaces can be claimed from this partition.
    In this conditions it's actually relevant to point that the firmware running inside the flash chip will actually claim that unused space as more reserve for wear-leveling.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Community ROM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a moot point anyway. Anything modern enough to run Android 7+ well enough to want to use it as a daily driver will probably have a locked bootloader and so unable to run LineageOS. If the bootloader isn't locked, use Odin (or the comparable tool) to repartition the phone.

    2. Re:Community ROM by shokker · · Score: 1

      This thread's top poster is not interested in OTA update from Google.
      He's interested in installed community firmware such as LineageOS (formely CyanogenMod).

      He has no use of the "one partition currently running (with old OS) one partition currently downloading (the next OS)", 1 partition is enough, and wondered if spaces can be claimed from this partition.
      In this conditions it's actually relevant to point that the firmware running inside the flash chip will actually claim that unused space as more reserve for wear-leveling.

      LineageOS will support A/B updates before those devices (currently only sailfish/marlin) go official. The last hurdle is really backuptool, which allows gapps and other addon.d packages to survive updates, support.

  9. And who is going to make it work *reliably*? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not like android devs are known for being able to.

  10. Catch 22 by kbg · · Score: 1

    So in order to get the update that works even if your phone is full the only thing you need is a update to your phone that is already full?

    Right....

  11. Limited Battery Life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So even if my phone has no more space for kitten pictures the vendor can cram an battery-killing app update in the middle of the day?

    I'm not worried about a real update on an unlocked phone. I'm worried about how a shady carrier will use this feature.

    Based on the usual competence of carriers this could leave me stuck somewhere with a dead phone that won't charge as long as it can reach the carrier's update servers.

  12. Umm, big waste of space? by holophrastic · · Score: 1

    So, let's see, since streaming ain't new, why have devices been downloading update packages in-advance of executing them forever? Oh yeah, because anything can happen and stability matters.

    So, I see this resolves the stability issues, but having SystemB separate from SystemA. Wonderful.

    So where does SystemB sit? Oh yeah, a whole 'nother partition . . . that takes up zero space?

    Not quite, I'll bet.

    So, let's create a big huge partition, hide it from the user, and then say that our updates require zero space.

    Welcome to dedicated resources; nothing new.

    Or, and here's a thought, you could give the user the benefits of that extra space, for the 90% of the time that they aren't updating anything.

    Look! we've done the impossible! We don't need any of your space! Because we stole half of your space from the very beginning!

    Moohaha!