Android: how to increase system partition and decrease data partition?

Question

A very bad situation
I want to install the Lineage 16 OS on Nexus 5
Without apps it install Ok
With google apps(I select pico package arm, wich is under 100 MB) not and give error system partition space not sufficient.
This is the actual situation

Filesystem

  1K-blocks

Used Available Use% Mounted on

tmpfs

 949772

  28
 949744
0% /dev

tmpfs

 949772

  44
 949728
0% /tmp

/dev/block/mmcblk0p28


 28061148
 643132  27418016
2% /data

/dev/block/mmcblk0p28


 28061148
 643132  27418016
2% /sdcard

/dev/block/mmcblk0p27


706392
  13084
 693308
2% /cache

/dev/block/mmcblk0p25


  1045804
 899652
 146152  86% /system

I have tried a parted binary for resize but said ext4 is not supported!
And with fdisk allow me to delete only the gpt partition(!) number 1
How to resize the partition n25 /dev/block/mmcblk0p25?
My idea is to decrease sdcard of 2GB and increase system with 2GB
is possible?

— elbarna | Sources

Answer

I have followed this method: shrink data and recreate system partition; which is not too "kind" but works.

Warning: this method is ok for a fresh installation from scratch. You will lose all data, so follow it only if you're sure of what you're doing. I'm not responsible for data lost, bricked devices, etc. You have been warned.

You must have TWRP installed, a USB connected smartphone and ADB, fastboot on PC:

Get parted and gdisk from here

Reboot in recovery mode
```
adb reboot recovery
```

Push gdisk and parted
```
adb push parted /

adb push gdisk /
```

With parted, resize the data partition. In my case, it is 28 and we resize from 30G to 27G
```
adb shell

umount /data 

parted /dev/block/mmc0blk0

resizepart 28 27G
```

Now exit from parted and open gdisk

umount /system

gdisk  /dev/block/mmc0blk0

d #delete, select the system partition, in my case is 25

n #new,I select the new size of 3G for my system partition and 0700 as fsid

w #write

Now, reopen with parted and rename the partition 25 as system

Reboot in recovery mode from TWRP or ADB
```
adb reboot recovery
```

The command
```
fdisk -l /dev/block/mmc0blk0
```
must report correct sizes

Now, create the ext4fs
```
make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmc0blk0p25
```

Resize the fs

umount /system||echo ok

e2fsck -f /dev/block/mmcblk0p25

resize2fs /dev/block/mmcblk0p25

Eventually, correct the /etc/fstab. The command mount /system must complete successfully. With TWRP, try to wipe the partitions data, system, etc. The command must complete successfully.

Install Android ROM or recover from a backup.

I see my Lineage OS image resize automatically the partition to 1G (sic!)
so I'm trying this workaround:

Install Lineage OS

Reboot and wait for Android OS

Reboot in TWRP

Resize the partition

Install the other zips

— elbarna | Sources

Android: how to increase system partition and decrease data partition?

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